I can’t add much to your individual forecasts and verification, but moisture can help keep the temp up at night. Like I mentioned the other day, frost formation or freezing dew can help latently warm the air a bit. If the moisture is evaporating that can cool the air, but that moisture is now water vapor in the air which brings up the dewpoint which in turn limits the amount the air can cool before reaching saturation. And if you’re reaching saturation, then you start forming dew and fog (condensation) which is another latent warming process.
The valleys out west can have some wild diurnal temperature swings because of how dry it is. Water has a relatively high heat capacity so it takes longer to warm and cool it than dry air (hence why lake and ocean temps lag in warming in the spring and cooling in the fall) so any moisture you can add to the air will help limit its warming and cooling potential.
Thanks for explanation @weatherandtrees . More rain this morning, but not as cold as yesterday. When I got home after work yesterday I checked the weather station and it said we had a low of 27, that was right before daybreak. That’s not great but a lot better than I was expecting.
My Zestar apple and Harrow Sweet pear is pretty much in full bloom, the other apples are starting to come open, like GoldRush. The others I’m guessing will be in a similar state by next week.
Warm today finally! They are showing possibly 90F over the plains today…Imperial, NE showing a high of 91F. A huge ridge over that area with a big trough in the east/ We’ll tap a little of that warmth. Mid 60Fs today.
we’ve never seen 90 in April and only 2xs in May and that was in the last 5 yrs. upper 40’s to low 50’s in the 7 day with rain Tues. its almost crunch time here. be flat out the next month in a half between spraying, grafting, fertilizing and planting. i keep saying im going to cut back and just maintain what i have but like most of us on here, we are always tweaking and adding new stuff.
i have a opportunity to buy the adjoining acre to my property for $2000. its wet with dogwood and highbush cranberry growing on it. i was thinking of buying it and making a half acre pond on it. there is a spring seepage on the higher end towards the west so the water should stay fresh and cold all year long. must cost a small fortune to dig a pond that size nowadays. i have to have a local landscaping company bring some crushed rock for my driveway. I’ll see if i can arrange for them to give me a estimate to build it. would be cool to have my own trout pond. how big/ deep is yours Rob?
It’s just a 4x6 or so pond (maybe 3 feet deep) using a rubber pond liner. I ended up emptying it and pulling the liner out. The lily pad was taking over–the whole bottom of the pond was roots. I think a different water plant might be needed if i do another one. I didn’t have rock or anything on the bottom so that matter it easier. Digging a pond with heavy machinery will probably be $$$. Maybe find a 100 amish lads to come hand dig it!
I won’t grow them again. Just way too much hassle. They need big bodies of water. I’ll try a different water plant next time. Just about got it filled back in. I had a raised bed that i wanted gone so i took the soil from that to fill in the crater. Also buried all last years compost that hadn’t broken down all the way. It’ll settle but i’m going to make a mound to compensate.
looks like my redhaven peach and everbearing mulberries got about 4-6in. of damage over the winter. coldest we got was -23f . we didn’t have decent snow cover till late Jan. so i thought they were toast. planted them on 18in. mounds which probably helped some but eventually the mounds will flatten but the trees will also be more mature by then. fingers crossed. mulberries went from a 6in rooted cutting to 5ft. in a season yet was still fairly hardy. now if the chestnuts and persimmons prove to be that hardy here.
I’m a big fan of buffers
Of my 95 acres, about 25 are swamp/marsh. Those acres are great for wildlife, and they put more distance between me and neighboring owners.
i try to convince my wife that. she doesn’t think its worth the money. i have a family of bitterns that nest in there every spring. lots of frogs also. birds nest in the dogwood thickets and feed off the highbush cranberry and choke cherry growing on the edges.
There’s an adjacent 60 acre parcel that I’d love to add to my buffer zone. If I could get it for $2K an acre I’d do it in a heartbeat. I imagine it’ll sell for 2 times that amount when it gets auctioned.
One thing about land, its pretty tough to lose money on your investment.
