Recent PDX airport temperatures have been strongly affected by blob of cool air from Columbia Gorge, the most extreme example being a recent high of 51. Temperature at the house 10 miles south of airport was 62; Salem was 66; Eugene was 69. Even during the cold snap, airport temperature was affected by the adjacent Columbia River and was several degrees warmer than the city.
How do Sea-Tac temperatures compare with city proper and suburbs?
I have a large black walnut tree. Every year numerous âsquirrel plantedâ trees sprout up all over the yard.
I have a lot of potted treesâŚand several have squirrel-plated nut trees.
They are usually pretty similar to other suburbs that are a similar distance from the water, but neighborhoods like mine (West Seattle) that are within a mile of Puget Sound or Lake Washington often are a few degrees cooler on hot days and a few degrees warmer on cold nights. Hereâs a comparison of each station maximum temperature so far today since midnight, Iâve circled SeaTac:
My own yard station reports a high of 55.6°F today, which is in line with the West Seattle stations on that map.
I should add that the previous records listed in my earlier post are only since the official station for Seattle was moved to SeaTac in 1948. Oh and yesterday did end up breaking both the daily high and warmest daily minimum records, it was a third day in a row with 61°F high and 51°F low. Today might be a fourth! But 61 would only tie the record for today, so it needs to go up to 62° to set a new record, and temperatures are already falling so thatâs not likely.
Same
New record high for PDX on 1 Feb:
'62 old record set (1962)
62 years ago
62F new record
We havenât been quite that warm, but itâs been awesome for this time of year for sure. I went out today to check out my plums and pluots and most of them were either close to, or already starting to break bud. Kind of caught me off guard because I was planning on moving a young satsuma tree and it was already starting to bloom. I sure hope we donât freeze over again as it will likely cost me most of my plums as they are in a pretty advanced state for this early in the year.
Gardener leap of faith. OSU and people here said cut them back. I hacked back my blueberry patch like 85%. I hope I did not over do it. They have not been productive the last 2 hot summers. I have lived here 18 springs now and never cut them back much at all. The previous owner said they were planted in 1980 as transplants from a u pick blueberry farm that was going to houses.
Anyway, the snow and wind usually kept them in check. Mainly if itâs working great donât break it was my thoughts. They always gave us buckets a day very consistently in the past. Enough for us and the birds. I thought it was just the scorching hot summers, hopefully I am wrong. And all they need was a good haircut. Ha
The way I prune Blueberries,is cut some of the oldest canes off,near the crown.Also,any ones that are crossing or touching.
As they age,the fruiting ends will get noticeably twiggy and start to lose production.Removing some will promote new ones,to sprout.
Perhaps better to cut near ground level 1/3 of the mature main stems, opening up the overall bush, for very mature plants like these.
Ooooh⌠I think there might have been a miscommunication about how to cut back blueberries. You donât want to give them a haircut. You want to remove the oldest branches and leave the more vigorous growth. A thinning rather than a shearing.
I have a dozen others I rooted from these over the years down creek that are six years old. I maintain them properly to size for back up. Those are up slope and not in the floodplain. These seem to grow differently than their parents.
The trunks have been that way for 17 years, no change really then thickening. They are underwater from the creek floodplain most of the winter. The top braches always grew the way they should out of the soil. They have been so crazy productive 15 of the last 18 years I just let them go. We told our neighbors to freely pick and we always load up our chest freezer. No joke a 5 gallon bucket worth a day + robins and stellar jays.
The timing of the production drop is the first 2 summers the creek has dried up in the 18!years I have been here. Either way they were out of vertical space in all directions. I thought about getting out the chain saw and going limbo but my wife layed down infront of me and said âno more are you crazyâ.
Hopefully the blueberry gods go light on my punishmentâŚ
Hello all,
New to the forum and looking for recommendations.
Recently bought property that has been cleared (previous owners) and receives lots of summer afternoon sun near Graham, Wa.
Previous owners had only 1 apple tree and this past season it gave lots of apples, of which most were eaten by our resident pet goats.
We want more fruit trees to plant, and looking for recommendations for what grows/thrives in our area.
So far I have my sight on the following, most of which I plan to get from âRestoring Edenâ:
Apple - Cosmic Crisp
Fig - Dessert King
Fig - Violette De Bordeaux
Fig - Ronde De Bordeaux
Cherries - Rainier
Cherries - Bing
Pluot - Dapple Dandy
Pluot - Flavor King
Aprium - Cot-N-Candy
Aprium - Flavor Delight
Would it be possible to grow some kind of Pomegranates?
Avocado?
Limes?
Other fruit recommendations? We mainly eat fruit raw, so sweet and juicy would be perfect.
Thanks and look forward to reading this entire thread!
Rubus, Ribes, and Vaccinium do great
You can grow poms, but so far I donât know anyone getting good fruit from them here. Too little heat!
And as the resident avocado enthusiast, I feel obligated to say that there is no variety of avocado that has yet been proven to even survive the winter regularly, let alone fruit here. But check back in with me in another decade or so! It looks like Graham might be a little colder than here in Seattle, though. Have you considered a greenhouse or high tunnel? Avocados will likely work in a high tunnel that is only heated on a rare/emergency basis.
Limes wonât work, but yuzu or sudachi might be reasonable alternatives for you.
Flavor Grenade and Splash are the best producing Pluots,for me right now.
While at or ordering from Restoring Eden,maybe pick up some of the New Zealand Feijoas.They should produce well,with possibly a little protection,during the coldest winter temps.
Those last three may need a greenhouse or brought inside during the cold months.
Iâd like to buy some erntsegen lingonberries but I donât want enough other plants to fill the minimum order from hartmanâs. Does anyone want to do a group order?
consider flavor grenade, maybe as a substitute for one of your others, it might be the most proven pnw pluot. there are also some very excellent japanese plums that are proven and taste great that will hit the pluot spot somewhat
there are peaches that will do very well for you if you control peach leaf curl, better than other stone fruits and I think more rewarding, especially more so than the apriums
check out the publication âfruit handbook for western washingtonâ which has many proven varieties based on testing at a mt vernon site
Hi, Iâm in the willamette valley as well, and would love to hear what fig trees have been the most disease resistant and best producers. Looking to buy some starts this spring. Also interested in a peace variety too, in case you have experience. 
thanks,
Adrian
Desert King is very popular and does well with a big breba crop.
