Agree with Ryan and several others. This site is hard to beat! I appreciate being in touch with a broad spectrum of experience and understanding how each region contributes to the knowledge base. It’s pretty easy to use other exiting forums to do meetups if that’s the goal. It’s also pretty easy to use the search glass to locate most any subject including now to locate the members map. The one thing I think might be helpful would be to annually send out a reminder to all to update their varieties in the Bio and to consider placing their location on the map. It’s a very useful feature and how I located several local members to share ideas.
Take care of the site and the site will serve you well!
Happy New Years
Dennis
Kent, wa
2 Likes
I would participate in a PNW forum. I used to post on a California fruit forum, but it was all about growing unknown fruits that were only hardy to 40F, and no one considered growing American persimmons or pie cherries there. Pears were considered not worth it due to disease pressure.
Not our situation in PNW.
I do appreciate what Scott has made for us here. We’ve got a great, open ability to share with each other and learn from all of the experience in this group.
John S
PDX OR
2 Likes
@mroot the map would only show locations for members that list their location in their profile and it would only be accessible to members. This is less of a risk than the current map which I am pretty sure is public.
I, too, like the idea of identifying an area of interest. So, for me it would be something like: “cool, maritime PNW region” or “SW Washington lowlands”. I don’t need to be on a map.
1 Like
Hi John and Others,
Regional forums in which the region is comprised of an area of similar growing conditions throughout would be of great interest to me. Using PNW as a growing region, for example, is far too inclusive. West of the Cascades is better, but still too inclusive. I live in the cool, maritime, lowlands of western Washington which is quite different from the Interstate 5 corridor area of Washington. In fact, growing temps here are somewhat different from where a friend lives 5 miles down the road - but it is close enough for us to compare notes. I would like to “compare notes” with others in a similar growing region.
1 Like
Let me ask this, I don’t do Facebook I only use marketplace but doesn’t Facebook have these groups already? He says “He would be interesting in a Forum to have regional discussions to meet people in my area, discuss regional issues and events, and possibly do meetups”.
It seems like this format already exist in Facebook to meet people in his area and it seems like a perfect platform for him or anyone else.
Facebook does probably have such regional groups. If I wanted to be on Facebook, I would probably join one. However, I may be wrong here, but a heck of a lot of people, myself included, would NEVER join Facebook. I do see that it provides a very beneficial social experience for a great many people, but I have a hard time getting past it’s evil uses. Perhaps this is rather narrow minded of me, but IT IS used in some very bad ways, I know, I know, virtually all technology has good and bad applications. (Well, one exception here would be the application of agricultural synthetic toxins. This just seems mostly bad. But I digress…)
5 Likes
Facebook does have Groups and I am sure there are Fruit Growing Groups but, FB Groups don’t work like Forums. I know, I manager a FB Group that I created 13 years ago and has >21,000 members. It is great stream of consciousness discussions (like Twitter) but not so great for slower and diverse conversations.
1 Like
I would love it. The PNW (where I’m at) is so different than most other growing areas.
The USDA zones are only good for low temps. Seattle is 8b, so is a lot of Texas. Not a lot of similar growing conditions.
I like the Sunset growing zones Gardening Zones: A Guide to Western Climates - Sunset Magazine but I guess its’s not too popular.
2 Likes
So very true. The USDA zones take into account only the lowest temperatures and frost dates, but not the warmer temperatures. The number of growing degree days or heating is extremely important for plant growth. As stated, in zone 8 in the PNW, we can’t grow a large number of plants that are easily grown in zone 8 in the South. And vice versa, I suppose. You not only have to consider chill hours but heat units as well.
3 Likes
I agree, I grew up in Texas and live in Portland now. The first year I was here I tried growing tomatoes which are super easy to grow in Texas but here I just ended up with frozen green tomatoes at the end of the season.
Thanks for all the great feedback but it is difficult to tell how much interest there is in creating a Regional Forum.
If you are interested in having regional forum please 
the original post so it is clear there is interest.
I would enjoy having a regional forum. I experience some issues in my location that aren’t relevant to members outside my region, and there is no one near me on the member map. I don’t think that’s because there actually are no members located near me, just that they haven’t put themselves on the map, so I don’t know who/where they are.
2 Likes
This thread is an option for you. I highly recommend beginning a thread similar to the one I started for Pittsburgh if trading /local meet-ups or region specific challenges needed to be discussed.
3 Likes
Fo
Following in that pattern, I created a topic for the Pacific Northwest
2 Likes
@disc4tw Thanks for the idea and @MrClint thanks for creating the Cali Roll Call.
Pacific Northwest Fruit Growers has definitely been a good success with 20 users and more than 250 views on the first day.
@scottfsmith I think Pacific Northwest Fruit Growers and Southern California Roll Call have clearly indicated there is an interest in Regional Discussions. As someone in the topic mentioned, USDA Hardiness Zones do not tell the whole story. Portland, OR and San Antonio, TX are both 8b and I promise you, they aren’t even close regarding to what they can grow.
The two regional topics I mentioned above have been very successful but they are not easy to find - Ex see What about the idea of a Regional Forum - #41 by CA_Poppy.
What do you think about the idea of creating a new Category “Regional Discussions” and move those topics there?
Let me check with the admins on this and get back to you…
2 Likes
OK the admins have approved the idea. I moved over every regional thread I could find, and feel free to make a new one for your region or let us know if there is another one out there which we could move over.
In order to enforce a limited number of threads there I put creation of a new thread as moderator approval only. The list has to be short enough to be browsable. Note we don’t have to be mutually exclusive on regions at this point, maybe if we get too many we might need to merge but not necessarily to start with.
Here is the current list:
4 Likes
Mark, NAFEX is hosting a regional meetup at the Home Orchard Education Center southeast of Portland on Sunday, Sept. 10. Folks in this thread may be interested in attending. Here are the details: NAFEX Regional Excursion – Pacific Northwest – NAFEX
@LeslieWade
Here is an index to the Regional Chats topics on this site.
Your post would likely gain traction in this one:
1 Like