Zone hardiness maps have changed and they changed in a big way. This has caused quite a stir in the gardening community. I discuss what this means for you, what we are doing about it, and hopefully give you some peace of mind.
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35 Comments
They changed ours big time, and it isn't a good change. They are now saying we can grow much less cold tolerant plants. Last winter our temps dropped to -30. We haven't ever had a winter like they are talking about, in the almost 17 years we have lived here. Always drops into the minus teens to twenties at least. Now they are saying we are in 6b.
Now, this winter is ridiculously warm. Nothing we have ever seen before. I don't trust any of these "experts". And I am not about to start planting things that will be doomed in our normal winter weather.
When we bought our land, we were told it was 8A. I was so excited and bought all sorts of 8A stuff. They all died. For the last 7 years I've been tracking the weather and storms. We actually are in a microclimate of 6B to 7A. Supposedly we are now 8B but oddly, my weather hasn't gotten the notification.
My zone didn't change. I thought I couldn't find the new map for weeks before it sunk in that nothing changed for us
The map says I'm 7a,… I don't trust it… It shouldn't get below zero… Well it gets below zero pretty much every year and last year it dropped to -7 and stayed that way for a few days.
We're in zone 7b on the east coast. It was not always this way, as winters used to be colder and bring more snow. Over the past few years though, the winters have been so mild that I barely even had to shovel. We've also gotten Indian summers lasting well into November. The downside is that springtime has gotten colder and wetter, delaying when I can plant out the summer crops.
The USDA climate zones have been and are expected to keep moving a half zone, 13 miles north, every 10 years. This means I have to plan accordingly for the future.
Very well explained
Both ends of the freeze/frost dates have mass fluctuated (e.g., early unusual winter hot hot hot with a hard freeze in May). This has made decision patterns untrustable and makes death of perennials & trees standard. Any ideas how to deal with hard bouncing?
In my head I'm hearing Luke say "I dare you to go buy a cold hardy citrus in Michigan". 😂😂😂
I was a zone 5b, but I've been growing mostly lower zone stuff, like 3 or 4, to eliminate any freak accidents.
It’s 100 degrees F in my Greenhouse right now, and it’s 49 degrees F outside. Zones don’t matter to me now that I have a greenhouse. The weather is being manipulated with chem trails and ConTrails or harp. Also those chemicals are falling on top of your dirt making your ground nonorganic even if you think it is. Of course it doesn’t matter to me because I have a Greenhouse and a water filter. Good luck growers.
Excellent education.
I would check on average first and last frost date because I knew that would change but it never occurred to me that the zones changed every 10 years but it makes sense.
I'm up in zone 3. 53 degrees north. Definitely seeing it getting colder. This last year, 2023, i've had my greenhouses all closed up more days than any other year as we continue to cool. Plan is to have most of the garden protected from the cooler temps with greenhouses. Additionally, I'm going to install my own weather monitors to track temps as what is said on the TV is not what I'm experiencing in the yard. TV says it's 28 when it's only 23 for example. I want to track my own temps
zone hardiness on plants themselves are also mostly wrong, which you failed to mention
Yes , showing the hand drawn chart was helpful.
This is the mildest winter I've seen in at least three decades. We haven't dropped below freezing in Battle Creek since 12/20.
My zone didn’t change, but the area around me did. I used to be an “island” of zone 6a surrounded by zone 5b. Now everything around me is also 6a. I expect to be in 6b in the next few years! We used to be zone 5a, with occasional zone 4 winters. I’ve always wished to live in a warmer climate, never expecting that I could do that without moving south!
I find this system to be an oversimplification, microclimates affect plants a lot more in my experience. A plant that survives just fine in a 7a zone can die in a 9a zone just because of an unknown interaction between wind, humidity and cold temperature duration without ever getting down to 7a zone frost.
More data. No change. Just More data.
Enjoyed this and found it very helpful. Thank you, Luke.
Can’t believe you are falling for the numbers game or that you are a global warming person. You do realize changing the numbers is cooking the numbers and what better time to make people even more afraid that the climate is changing and to do what they are told to fix it.
First, what plants could your grandparents grow in your region? Yes, they are the same. They had really cold year streaks and really warm year streaks. They had floods and they had droughts. Everyone who has gardened for long(in my state) Iowa knows darn well from their experience and their parents experience that even though our map puts us in zone 5 we have been at best 4B this whole time. Never have we ever been safe planting something for zone 5. Trust me I have tried. Cooking the books is no different than lying and it’s not an innocent thing that all the sudden it’s showing us warmer.
Ask the great astronomers how the temp changes. Our earth has only ever shifted its rotational tilt within a 3 degree window and the temperatures change according to that.
You are doing nothing because nothing has changed.
I live in Canada and some would say now your zones match closer to our zones BUT Canada’s zones take in snow and rains in account and the American does not. Beware they are not comparable!
I’ll stick to what’s been successful. I won’t change until they get rid of all the woke scientists
Thank you. This was very helpful information.
Thanks so much Luke…I live in southern Utah and we had pretty cold snaps in the nights recently but I didn't think too much about a change….gives me something to look out for. Thanks
I'm not in a rush to start planting zone 6 things.
The zone in my area is 6a. I’ve never had more than 90 frost free days in the past 11 years. I call BS.
Yes, it is helpful
We have microclimates within our 1/3 acre yard in an HOA. Observation over time has shown me where to plant what, within zone 5b/6a now known as 6a!
The National Climate Data Center has a massive network of sensors to determine daily highs and lows since 1982 and 90 percent of the sensors don't meet [the government's] old, simple rule called the '100-foot rule' for keeping thermometers 100 feet or more from biasing influence. You can read about the meteorologist Anthony Watts who went to these locations in 2009-2010 and sounded the alarm bells. USDA zone map data was drawn from weather data from NCDC. Since 2015, a new weather sensor network, the U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN) was created which is far more accurate and doesn't show increased levels of temperature happening.
Our Zone did not change. I have lived in my area for 6 years and have never witnessed the extreme temperature of 6a?
Yes we had a blizzard last year lasted about 3 days.. but the temperature didn't drop bellow 15*. 6a ratting is 0* to -10*. I just don't get it?
It never matched my area anyway. Nurseries, catalog companies, wouldn't send us things when they'd actually grow. :/
Ironically, where we live in Missouri, our weather has been getting colder! It's all cyclical.
I started growing " cold loving " cool flowers for cutting last year.. so it does matter the zone.. planting transplants out in the fall for earliest Spring harvest for instance. I guess it's experimental. Which can be fun.
I have been watching and writing down temps for 4 years, never has it once been 0 to -10* f.
Thanks for answering some of my questions I've had. Happy God blessed New year🎉
What's funny about the zone changes is that they moved my zone from 8B to 9A, but my last frost date this year is almost 3 weeks later than it was last year. Thats numbers that don't add up.