One question, what is hard pan soil even though I have my ideas what it can be. We have a few. Black clay, you need hammer and chisel, pickaxe fails. We have a layer of sedimentary type of rock formation which becomes concrete when lime and other organic material starts its action on it. I consider it a kind of sandstone but brittle, not like black clay. Then we have a white clay, though it is not as hard as black but behaves like a waterproof plastic/rubber layer. We use it as a waterproof layer on our roofs.
Can the above be considered as hard pan or is it something else?
Regards,
Arif.

Bad stuff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...

Bad stuff, I have no lack of it. I mix in manure, leaf mulch, sand, etc but it takes time. At least, I can now see some earth worms roaming around which helps in the digging in process.
Regards,
Arif.

dave said:I haven't replied to this thread but I've certainly been following it closely.

Putting together a system (a web app, I guess) where people can post answers to a form and get back a sort of "Regional Profile" is something I've been keen to do for a VERY long time. Rick, your questionnaire is an excellent start and I'm starting to get excited about what can be done here.

I will definitely be doing this.

What if someone doesn't have a smart phone/pad to get and use "(a web app, I guess)"?

My apps work on a browser as well as a phone. I guess I should consider calling them something other than an app.

I saw the word "app" and didn't even bother looking at first because I don't have a cell phone or anything like that.

I love this current idea...it opens things up for people anywhere in the world to add their onfo...not just those in the USA. Looking forward to this feature.

dave said:My apps work on a browser as well as a phone. I guess I should consider calling them something other than an app.

I can't get apps. Don't have a phone and/or a browser that can get and use apps. That's what I was trying to say in my previous post.

Dave, You have brought some amazing custom advanced data features/applications (webapps) that are easy to use for everyone! Sometimes it's difficult to keep up with all the techy terms, but in the end they are super easy to use and add so much more value to ATP. I have found all the different features/application on ATP pretty easy to figure out and use. I'm just a little challenged with inserting a picture from my computer file and placing it within an article.

The new "Webapps" title fits it better, IMHO

Rick, I'm not a very successful vegetable gardener, but we have a column on the weather of the Central TX area each month in our garden club newsletter. Our former editor was a "weather buff" and gave me permission to use. I think it might work for this new feature. This is January's:

JANUARY CLIMATE FOR AUSTIN

The average daily maximum temperature varies from 60 at the beginning of the month to 61 at the end. The minimum varies from 39 at the beginning to 41 at the end of the month. Extremes are 90 observed in 1971 and -2 in l949. We average about 8 days with a minimum of 32 or below.
Precipitation averages 1.71 inches but has ranged from a wet 9.21 in 1991 to a dry 0.04 in 1971. A maximum 24-hour amount of 4.41 occurred in 1991. Snow is rare, however 7 inches fell in a 24-hour period in 1994, and 7.5 inches fell during the month in 1985. On average, precipitation is observed on 8 days during the month.
We usually receive about 48% of the possible sunshine, and between sunrise and sunset have 9 clear days, 6 partly cloudy days and 16 days with overcast conditions. Dense fog with visibility of 1/4 mile or less is observed on 4 days. The time between sunrise and sunset increases from about 10 hours 14 minutes at the beginning of the month to 10 hours 45 minutes at the end of the month.


We also have a column on what to plant each month. I can post it also if it would help.

I like the new name 'Webapps'.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap13...

Sandi / Bubbles

If there was a way to import data that detailed for EVERY ATP member, into some standardized and searchable series of fields, it would be awesome.

It suggests some possible new fields if Dave implements month-by-month fields for our region climates:

- daily range of temperature swing (max/min)
- fog (rare / frequent / dense)
- snow accumulation (rare, frequent, depth?)
- % of days cloudy or overcast (thanks for this one, for the PNWS!)


>> We also have a column on what to plant each month.
>> I can post it also if it would help.

Perhaps an entire different WebApp would be needed. Dave already created one based on Last frost date, intended to apply anywhere, based on starting seeds indoors or outdoors assuming that a given plant should be sown or transplanted N weeks before or after the averaged last frost date.

Every seed packet in the world assumes the same thing. However, gardeners and farmers have to adjust those dates based on their local springtime and summer conditions (rainfall, speed of spring air warming, speed of spring soil warming, frequency of unusual cold snaps, earliness of summer "scorch" etc etc etc).

Your garden club has a great service. Right now, the only way I can think of to create something like that for ATP would be for individual members to enter their own experiences into a very large database, and then somehow share that info on a ZIP-code-by-ZIP-code basis.

And yet, micro-climate, slope, soil and personal differences in cultivation would make even Zip codes to broad a brush to paint with. That is a toughie!

Dave has something like that, where each type of plant has fields based on "weeks before or after average last frost date", plus the ability for members to submit suggestions for changing individual plants.

???? ... maybe columns for variation by region ... ????
???? ... some way to track differences of opinion and DISCOVER the patterns of why some people start some plants much earlier or later than others. .... ????

If you can access and run this on your PC, you can run Dave's WebApps.

The Garden Planting Calendar
http://garden.org/apps/calenda...

I just offered it as added information that's peculiar to the central TX area. Maybe it's info that could be better posted on my profile page some point in the future. I think your ideas for a new feature are great and I'm enjoying following!

You know, Sandi, a link to that information might make a good sticky on the Texas Gardening Forum. Just a thought.

Good idea woofie! I'll check with Dave first.

Bubbles said:Rick, I'm not a very successful vegetable gardener, but we have a column on the weather of the Central TX area each month in our garden club newsletter. Our former editor was a "weather buff" and gave me permission to use. I think it might work for this new feature. This is January's:

JANUARY CLIMATE FOR AUSTIN

The average daily maximum temperature varies from 60 at the beginning of the month to 61 at the end. The minimum varies from 39 at the beginning to 41 at the end of the month. Extremes are 90 observed in 1971 and -2 in l949. We average about 8 days with a minimum of 32 or below.
Precipitation averages 1.71 inches but has ranged from a wet 9.21 in 1991 to a dry 0.04 in 1971. A maximum 24-hour amount of 4.41 occurred in 1991. Snow is rare, however 7 inches fell in a 24-hour period in 1994, and 7.5 inches fell during the month in 1985. On average, precipitation is observed on 8 days during the month.
We usually receive about 48% of the possible sunshine, and between sunrise and sunset have 9 clear days, 6 partly cloudy days and 16 days with overcast conditions. Dense fog with visibility of 1/4 mile or less is observed on 4 days. The time between sunrise and sunset increases from about 10 hours 14 minutes at the beginning of the month to 10 hours 45 minutes at the end of the month.


We also have a column on what to plant each month. I can post it also if it would help.

_________________________________________________

. For this kind of detailed information I will have to start a daily log book not all that difficult for me as I monitor the weather in diverse locations(hobby ) . That log book has to be standardised because others would most likely want to maintain one. It can be made in Exel? Now where to maintain this log book. Note book, computer or on ATP? I would prefer ATP because ATP has backup servers and we all don't. Now where on ATP, in the persons profile or some where else? This I leave open.
Regards,
Arif.

If we have enough points of reference, we can join areas with same conditions in some kind of world diagram showing the same condition areas in different colours. May be easier to present and maybe easier for some to understand then data sheets. Our log book sheets, every tenth day of the month a centralised software can be run to visit the log books and compile the data.
If a software can be made then there is another way. Go to http://www.weather.com then go to any place, you will find a radio button which says "Yesterday's weather" click on that and you will get yesterdays recorded conditions. No need to buy equipment.
Regards,
Arif.

I love The Weather Channel website! http://www.weather.com/

I always have some links to them in my signature block. The degree-day calculator is awesome. It uses observations for past date ranges, and predictions or long-term averages for future date ranges.

And all their features work "by ZIP code". I'm not sure if there is a way to tweak that for valleys and mountain slopes where one ZIP code spans very different micro-climates.

degree-day calculator
http://www.weather.com/outdoor...

30-day forecast plus last month's temps & precip:
http://www.weather.com/outlook...

Quite a bit of data can be picked up from weather.com but things like cloud cover, etc I suppose the observer can sit at his laptop and look out of a window and write down how much cloud cover is there. Also if sites are selected for observation people can choose how many and which sites they will observe and enter the data. I can for example set up eleven tabs, ten for weather.com and one for log book. Whenever I open my browser the data of ten sites pop up, I just have to do the data entry not a tedious job, maybe five minutes. Now on weather.com you can in each tab set up favorites, as many as you want. In each tab if I set up ten sites then I can easily enter the data for 100 sites. Let people decide how many sites they are willing to observe and enter data. Not every one has the energy to handle 100 sites but still enough sites will be selected by volunteers that a comprehensive monitoring system can be set up. You may end up with a complete coloure coded chart.
Regards,
Arif.