Gardeners get hung up on growing zones and fear them as if they will ruin their season if they pick a variety “out of their zone”. Growing zones only have to do with the average coldest tempurature during winter, and nothing to do with anything else.
VIDEO: Your Growing Zone Doesn’t Matter With Most Crops
Gardeners get hung up on growing zones and fear them as if they will ruin their season if they pick a variety “out of their zone”. Growing zones only have to do with the average coldest tempurature during winter, and nothing to do with anything else.
In the deep south plants will go dormant from the heat in july and august. The leaves wont drop but nothing really grows. The plants really just try to maintain.
I sent an email with a question and the website said I need to wait 48 hours for a response due to “a high amount of emails”
It’s been 3-4 weeks already.
So much for customer service
Thank u so much for explaining this thoroughly. I was always confused about it.
True true true! Thank you for clearing this up! Lol hugs and love from Texas- many zones!
Okay, but there is a great difference between growing inside a greenhouse in the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska in USDA Zone 4a and growing outside of a greenhouse in the same location. In Zone 4a within a greenhouse you can grow tomatoes (usually an annual) and strawberries (often a perennial) for a much longer period than outside in the ground. So, I think that you should qualify your commentary more than you have.
Please don't joke about crime in your videos. Otherwise, this is a reasonable video. And, please recognize that the USDA growing zones range from Zone 1a (-60 to -55 degrees F) on the North Slopes of Alaska through Zone 13b (65 to 70 degrees F) where the minimum annual temperature is listed.
I would like to add that micro climates can be even as small as the difference between your front yard and your back yard. (I'm in zone 7a.)
My house faces south. It's a small townhouse with a brick planter under the front window. I have had many annuals winter over near either the planter or the side walk when we have had a mild winter even if we had a big (6+ inches) of snow for a short time.
In back, I have a crab apple tree that put light shade on much of the back yard. Way in back by the fence, only the hardiest things can winter over, but in the tower planter on my patio, I've had rosemary for two years and does fine through the cold as long as it's covered. I got an actual frost cover for it this fall and the rosemary is doing even better than last year. Last year, I also wintered over broccoli and kept green beans going into December. With this new cover, I can likely plant some things pretty early such as lettuce that likes cool weather anyway though not frost. Worth a try anyway.
Summer here is hot and humid so in the front only the most heat and sun loving things do well. I'm going to try some attractive looking herbs and see how they fare. In back because I have some shade (except on the patio), can put assorted things that like some sun or filtered shade.
It's all a balancing act and some experimentation to see what things like what location which seems to be important with very limited space.
You make a lot of sense here. Thanks for this vid, Luke. I had been trying to grow crops, based on zones. But, I really should just think about the crops that will mature during my growing season, which is really short. We can get last frost as late as the first week of June and first frost as early as the first week of September. I just need things that either grow fast or can tolerate a bit of frost for a bit.
Thank you this is helpful.
I overwinter tomato plants all the time, I'm in zone 9 and rarely get freezes. I had to kill a 3 year old tomato plant last year
I live in the south pole. I will start sowing my tomatoes now.
Real grown up luke blocking me from the migardener fb page. you really need to grow up and stop running your brand into the ground with your pointless rants. I was happy to buy local here in the mitten but just as happy to buy else where. Good luck keeping your company afloat while running off customers.
Growing seasons are important to me, I live in zone 9b, because we actually have 4 and when we grow what plant is kinda all over the map.
You have much more gardening knowledge than me but I slightly disagree with your statement of average 1st and last frost dates. I know what those are for my area and over time with experience can say that within a 2ish week timeframe they are close. I do base my seed starting on my average of the average. I do not select my seeds based on zone. Just my 2 cents. Thanks for the video.
How does this apply to perennials?
How does this apply to perennials?
Thank you for pointing this out! Stay warm!
And I'm not robbing a house…. lmbo
Hello trying to winter sow direct into my beds with the plastic cover containers like you did in your winter sowing video from I think a year ago. Can you tell me do I need to put holes in the top of the plastic container?
Thank you!!! I'm a beginner, and this cleared up a lot of confusion for me. ❤️ Edit: LOVE your channel, Luke. Ive been watching you for several years. I've learned a lot.
As a new gardener, I think your channel has given me the most practical advice, and is taking away the 'mysticism' of gardening. Thank you!
Thanks I like a commonsense explanation.
Your iron t posts behind you are crookedly placed. Grow what you use.
I am in SW New Hampshire generally zone 5. But we have micro climates from zone 4b up to 6a on our very sloped property. We are at 1200 ft. The south end of town is at 650 ft. They have at least a week longer on each end of our growing season. My growing season is best case 120 days. I have grow tents and will be setting up a greenhouse this year. You can grow anything if you can start it indoors early enough
This doesn’t seem accurate to me. Even many fruit and berries that might grow fine in zone 9 or 10 require a certain amount of chilling hours to produce fruit. I can plant a cherry or apple tree in the deep south but unless I’ve picked varieties that don’t need as many chilling hours, they won’t produce. They’ll grow but they won’t produce fruit, so you must pick varieties that produce fruit in your zone or at least your region. For instance Northern blueberries need a lot more chilling hours than Southern and Rabbiteye varieties. So, why plant blueberries in Florida that need way more chilling hours than they’ll get? That decision is directly tied to your growing zone. And I’m not sure how you say frost dates have nothing to do with growing zones. Are the frost dates different for each growing zone? Do the frost dates not tell you when to start seeds indoors to transplant outside when all danger of frost is past? I’m sorry, but this didn’t make any sense to me.
Winter hardiness has nothing to do with growing annual food crops.
Frost date is what really matters. Her in much of Michigan, growing zone is 6a but you can't plant much until after Memorial Day (more like 1st week of June)! That's because, even though some of April and basically all of May is nice and warm during the day, we still get a LOT of frosts at night! Compare this to zone 6a in northern Kansas, where you plant in mid-April! Same zone, different frosts!
SO…Are there certain verities of the basic veggies that grow better in a Michigan climate? I know for a fact there are ones that do better in the heat of the south then others.
Great video. Thanks! But while the zone you live in doesn’t directly correlate to your ability to grow annual garden crops, there are other factors that may be correlated. As mentioned in the video, last frost may come later and first frost may come earlier, and therefore you’ll need to plant shorter growing season plants and/or start plants indoor to give them a head start. Yet another factor not mentioned in the video that may be typical with living in a lower zone number are **colder nights throughout the summer**. Therefore, plants that need a warmer soil temperature to move them into flowering and fruiting may not happen.
To this point, we live in zone 5a at 8,700 feet in elevation. Even though we live an hour north of the New Mexico border, tomatoes and peppers will not readily produce fruit here. While there are varieties more suited to produce in colder weather (Canadian and Siberian strains), to actually get a crop from these plants, we really need a hoop house to get a decent yield.
I am constantly trying to explain this to people but it's so futile. I live in the Nevada desert with a 117 day grow season. Zone 6b and it gets like 110 in the summer and never rains lol