The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Fruit => Topic started by: Orinlooper on August 09, 2019, 01:05:40 pm
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If the experts are right and we are going to see warmer summer here in the uk, are we going to be able to grow warmer climate foods?
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Well, it's hosing down here at the moment! Who knows...
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Last year we grew beautiful tomatoes and even aubergines outdoor in Leicester!
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Warmer summers tend to equal not enough rain, so more difficult to keep plants watered.
Warmer winters mean more rain and less real cold and snow, so pests, diseases and moulds proliferate.
Not that I'm a pessimist of course :innocent:
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Thought it was great we could grow Kiwi fruit down here, but this year they were sun burned and some rotted. We used 7000 Litres of tap water for the first time ever, carried in 10 Litre watering cans to the veg, so really hard work. Just seen a 4" + preying mantis and we have a toad bigger than my fist visiting the chicken drinkers. Our tomatoes are being eaten by ants! Something weird is going on??
Warmer climate means more problems currently controlled with chemicals soon to be banned, so don't get too excited Orinlooper.
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What about tropical fruits?
Could they survive the winter?
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Kiwis do well in the UK - especially little "hardy kiwis" as they are known. They are hardy to -30C.
We grow figs, beautiful crop of mulberries this year!
That s probably the most trpical plants that we grow lol
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What about tropical fruits?
Could they survive the winter?
As the saying goes 'it's all relative'. Tropical stuff isn't going to survive a frosty winter and climate change may mean milder winters but hardly promises an absence of frost. adly it also coms with more blustery winds.It's worth noting that Florida gets the occasional snow and their citrus survives - albeit may lose the crop. Certainly it gives promise for sub-tropical stuff with just the protection of a polytunnel rather thn winter heat.There's a plave on anglesey that claims to have found assorted hardier varieties o some subtropical plants that they manage to have go through winter unheated.Also note that the Palm and Cycad centre near Syon Lodge? has mature palms growing outside that normally aren't considered frost hardy but are OK once mature trees.For anyone interested in palms there are varieties that can take -15C so doubtless some cross-breedig or genetic work and soemthign bearing useful fruits/nuts could be developed. Date palms can take -6C if you want to try.
The other point about tropical stuff is that it grows fast.. tropical annuals or tropicals that one can lift and store (possible with ginger?)
About twice a year I buy a lottery ticket (cos I;m too frugal and not stupid enough to buy them every week). But the reason is that on that off-chance of £80 million I might, just might, be able to construct the greenhouse of my dreams and prove that you can grow Breadfruit in Wales..... and not being totally mad the intention is also to grow other tropicals and sell plants and charge to enter the superb design I have in mind as well as it's solar/wind/water power arrays...
Heck they grow bananas in Iceland - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_production_in_Iceland (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_production_in_Iceland)
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We are not going to be seeing warmer summers in the Uk the last two years were an anomaly like 1976 was. Its also worth remembering that in the 1970s the scientific consensus was for a cooling planet and they were right (at the time) . If you look at the data on average the planet has warmed from the early 80s to about the year 1999 but now it seems to be plateauing. The media will have you believe things are just getting hotter and hotter when the truth is rather different. In terms of the UK the weather has always been changeable so any minuscule long term average worldwide trend is likely to be completely masked by our varied and changeable weather.