0:00
Hello plant people, how are you guys doing today? If you're new around here, my name is Ashley and I'm a soil scientist
0:04
On this channel, I like to take that size and apply it to all things plants. And in today's video, we're doing a subscriber ask question on zones
0:12
In particular, what does a USDA zone mean compared to a Canadian zone
0:18
And how to apply zones to the garden? So I've done some videos on this in the past
0:24
It's about two years old now. So I feel like it's time to update it. I wasn't nearly as camera confident and I wasn't the best
0:32
at editing either at the time. When it comes to zones or USDA government zones versus Canadian
0:38
zones, there are some slight differences. Now this zone world is not a linear measure. Every
0:47
country measures their zones differently. So in Canada, we take into control or we take into
0:54
consideration things like minimum temperatures annual rainfalls frost-free total days and elevation even and a whole bunch of other variables with the usda system they are just using the min
1:07
temperatures or minimum temperatures and this is why we see these like this disconnect in zones and
1:13
you know australia's gonna have a different system than the uk will and everyone's just slightly
1:17
different but a general rule of thumb is that a zone three agriculture agri-foods canada is a usda
1:26
zone four so it's usually always about plus one so if you are a canadian zone you want to compare
1:32
yourself to maybe an influencer or youtuber in an american zone if they say usda five that generally
1:40
means Canada zone four If you have someone in california that says i in usda zone nine that means that they gardening likely at a agriculture agri canada zone
1:55
eight so you can see it's plus one or minus one depending on your situation
1:59
so americans that watch my channel um i'm a you i'm a usda zone four canadian zone three
2:06
So just to put that into a little bit of perspective there, but again, it's not linear
2:11
So I may be a USDA zone four for the most part, but I may receive drastically different
2:19
levels of rainfall or just in general frost free days than someone in an actual USDA zone four
2:28
So that is just something to keep in mind, but it is relatively linear across the board
2:32
But as a gardener, what you actually care about is your total number of frost-free days
2:38
And zone really only applies when you're selecting a perennial. So if you're selecting perennials for the garden, whether that be in a rhizome root or a bulb form
2:48
seed form, such as poppies, for example, or if you are buying an entire plant
2:54
what you're looking for is a zone that matches your exact zone
2:58
So for me, it would have to say zone three or less
3:02
So you can in many cases grow up to two zones less than the actual zone you're growing in
3:09
It's very, very rare that you're going to be able to grow something zone four in zone three
3:15
The exception to that is if you heavily mulch the area and then you use some sort of mini greenhouse system around that perennial and then you snowpack that area like no tomorrow So there are ways to maybe push it but for the most part general rule is your zone or two less When we get into really warm American zones
3:38
or Vancouver type zones, you actually may have some more issues going lower than you would higher
3:47
And the reason for that is because the vernalization that needs to take place with bulbs and with perennials
3:52
can only take place at those lower zones. So that is something to keep in mind if you go with the lower zone options
3:59
Bob is distracting me in the side of the corner of my eye. So when it comes to zones, that's all we need to know
4:07
As gardeners, actually what we care about is what the frost-free days are in our zone
4:13
So zone 3 in Canada, whether it be A or B, the number of frost-free days is going to change
4:20
depending on your city or your town. So what you want to look at is not necessarily frost free days in zone three
4:26
What you're actually looking for and I have an entire resource over on the gardening Canada website where I list out the frost free days
4:32
A zone three can have a varying number of total frost free days
4:37
It does not have to be exactly 107 across the board Saskatoon can have 107
4:44
Give or take but Blaine Lake farther north where my other garden is is you know 98 days so it can vary
4:54
despite the fact that they're all zone three so I encourage you to actually
4:58
Google your area your city and find out the number of frostbree days what
5:03
you're gonna do with this information is you're going to plan your seeds that you
5:07
purchase around that so West Coast seeds lists out for example I using West Coast to use because that I a brand ambassador for them So when it comes to West Coast it says 70 days OP That is what you looking for If you
5:24
want to make sure the total number of days is under the number of growing degree days in your area
5:32
Even if it says 120 days and you say, well, I'll just start that pumpkin indoors earlier. No
5:39
you cannot do that you have to get the actual number of days in your zone or
5:44
less or less is the key there so 75 for those kind of peppers are good to grow
5:50
in my zone then what you're gonna do is you're going to follow the information
5:55
on the backs of the packages so this says 75 days op but it's also going to
5:59
say two to four weeks before last frost or I think this one actually says four
6:03
to six weeks before last frost and then what you want to do is you want to take your first frost day so here in zone 3 or in Saskatoon it's actually June 10th
6:12
is considered the last for the first frost free day and then you're going to
6:16
count back from there so you're gonna count your weeks back to determine when
6:21
six to eight weeks is and that's when you're going to start your cayenne
6:24
peppers so that means despite the fact that says so many holidays and I've done
6:30
lots of videos on this it means nothing because it's the GDDs so that is what
6:36
you want to aim for that is what your zones should be used for and more specifically you should look
6:40
up them in your city or in your town because that's going to give you a little bit better
6:46
information but that's all i have for you guys on zones i hope this helps you out just a little bit
6:50
when trying to decipher what your favorite influencers on instagram or youtube or wherever
6:55
maybe talking about or where they're coming from in regards to their grow zones and i will talk to
7:00
you guys next time bye
