5 ms·

This year German farmers grew watermelon for the first time (outside of a greenhouse)

88840-8855 5y ago
We are growing watermelons for years in our garden in Germany. And how does this fit to the fact that Germany has the coldest year for a long time? edit: wtf are you downvoting? Dumb af, look up the figures.
- _ph_ 5y ago
  It isn't cold. The weather just is miserable. But the average temperatures are still pretty high and way higher than in a bad summer in the 80ies. While I didn't especially appreciate the weather here this year, my plants have been growing like hell, they like the wet and not too cold.
  - 88840-8855 5y ago
    It IS cold compared to the last 20 years AND to other regions in Europe. Can you please stop spreading lies with "it is not cold". Get your facts straight before you post anecdotes that your plants are growing "like hell". https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/german-2021-wheat-crop-to-fall-3.6-after-adverse-weather-ministry-2021-08-25 https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/german-2021-wheat-crop-to-fa...
    - jounker 5y ago
      The articles doesn’t say the weather is cold. It says that the weather has been highly variable.
    - morsch 5y ago
      Compared to 1961-1990, June and July were pretty warm. The harvest has been bad due to the rain, a few weeks ago they were expecting an above average harvest. https://www.dwd.de/DE/presse/pressemitteilungen/DE/2021/20210629_deutschlandwetter_juni2021_news.html https://www.dwd.de/DE/presse/pressemitteilungen/DE/2021/2021... https://www.dwd.de/DE/presse/pressemitteilungen/DE/2021/20210730_deutschlandwetter_juli2021_news.html https://www.dwd.de/DE/presse/pressemitteilungen/DE/2021/2021...
      - morsch 5y ago
        But you're right about August, which was 0.1C colder than the reference period, for the first time since 2014. Though first and foremost, it was very rainy. The report was released today: https://www.dwd.de/DE/presse/pressemitteilungen/DE/2021/20210830_deutschlandwetter_august2021_news.html?nn=16210 https://www.dwd.de/DE/presse/pressemitteilungen/DE/2021/2021...
    - chalst 5y ago
      Stop accusing other HN posters of "spreading lies", when they are, in fact, looking at the data and arriving at conclusions that differ from yours. Your approach may involve looking at data, but your shrillness shows that your attitude to understanding that data is unscientific.
- hansel_der 5y ago
  just because it's possible does not imply that it's viable at a commercial scale. i guess the point was, that this has changed. likewise the average temperature over the year does not neccesarily depict climate in the vegetation period.
  - ajuc 5y ago
    Yup. Similarly my parents grow 1 grape bush for 3 decades already and make wine out of it each year, but it's a hobby, it wasn't commercially viable till a few years ago. There were less than 20 wineyards in Poland in 2000 and none in 1990, now there's almost 500.
    - IG_Semmelweiss 5y ago
      Correlation does not imply causation. Poland was a communist country with closed borders until not long ago. Commercial enterprise was not exactly blooming in the late 90s. In addition, supply chain and shipping costs hadnt yet grown and fallen in price to the level they have today , making new crops a real export opportunity.
      - guntars 5y ago
        All true, of course, but USSR had wine regions just the same, they just weren't in Poland. This was a surprise for me, but apparently: > The former Soviet Union (FSU) was the fourth largest wine producer in the world in 1980 behind Italy, France, and Spain.
      - ajuc 5y ago
        Farming wasn't forcibly collectivized in Poland unlike in USSR, the split was almost 20% state-owned farming land and 80% small private farms. Both private and state farms grew hops for beer and potatoes/grain for vodka. If wineyards were possible we would have had them.
- frereubu 5y ago
  You have two problems here. The first is "dumb af". If you actually want a discussion, remain civil. The second is that climate change is a much longer and more variable process than 20 years. Although you may not have intended it, this comes across a bit like Trump pointing to the fact that there's still snow despite "global warming". Perhaps this is the coldest year in 20 years, but (a) that doesn't change the fact that average temperatures are going up and (b) that the predictions of climate change are a less predictable climate, not just steady year-on-year rises in a single place.

We are growing watermelons for years in our garden in Germany. And how does this fit to the fact that Germany has the coldest year for a long time? edit: wtf are you downvoting? Dumb af, look up the figures.

_ph_ 5y ago
It isn't cold. The weather just is miserable. But the average temperatures are still pretty high and way higher than in a bad summer in the 80ies. While I didn't especially appreciate the weather here this year, my plants have been growing like hell, they like the wet and not too cold.
- 88840-8855 5y ago
  It IS cold compared to the last 20 years AND to other regions in Europe. Can you please stop spreading lies with "it is not cold". Get your facts straight before you post anecdotes that your plants are growing "like hell". https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/german-2021-wheat-crop-to-fall-3.6-after-adverse-weather-ministry-2021-08-25 https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/german-2021-wheat-crop-to-fa...
  - jounker 5y ago
    The articles doesn’t say the weather is cold. It says that the weather has been highly variable.
  - morsch 5y ago
    Compared to 1961-1990, June and July were pretty warm. The harvest has been bad due to the rain, a few weeks ago they were expecting an above average harvest. https://www.dwd.de/DE/presse/pressemitteilungen/DE/2021/20210629_deutschlandwetter_juni2021_news.html https://www.dwd.de/DE/presse/pressemitteilungen/DE/2021/2021... https://www.dwd.de/DE/presse/pressemitteilungen/DE/2021/20210730_deutschlandwetter_juli2021_news.html https://www.dwd.de/DE/presse/pressemitteilungen/DE/2021/2021...
    - morsch 5y ago
      But you're right about August, which was 0.1C colder than the reference period, for the first time since 2014. Though first and foremost, it was very rainy. The report was released today: https://www.dwd.de/DE/presse/pressemitteilungen/DE/2021/20210830_deutschlandwetter_august2021_news.html?nn=16210 https://www.dwd.de/DE/presse/pressemitteilungen/DE/2021/2021...
  - chalst 5y ago
    Stop accusing other HN posters of "spreading lies", when they are, in fact, looking at the data and arriving at conclusions that differ from yours. Your approach may involve looking at data, but your shrillness shows that your attitude to understanding that data is unscientific.
hansel_der 5y ago
just because it's possible does not imply that it's viable at a commercial scale. i guess the point was, that this has changed. likewise the average temperature over the year does not neccesarily depict climate in the vegetation period.
- ajuc 5y ago
  Yup. Similarly my parents grow 1 grape bush for 3 decades already and make wine out of it each year, but it's a hobby, it wasn't commercially viable till a few years ago. There were less than 20 wineyards in Poland in 2000 and none in 1990, now there's almost 500.
  - IG_Semmelweiss 5y ago
    Correlation does not imply causation. Poland was a communist country with closed borders until not long ago. Commercial enterprise was not exactly blooming in the late 90s. In addition, supply chain and shipping costs hadnt yet grown and fallen in price to the level they have today , making new crops a real export opportunity.
    - guntars 5y ago
      All true, of course, but USSR had wine regions just the same, they just weren't in Poland. This was a surprise for me, but apparently: > The former Soviet Union (FSU) was the fourth largest wine producer in the world in 1980 behind Italy, France, and Spain.
    - ajuc 5y ago
      Farming wasn't forcibly collectivized in Poland unlike in USSR, the split was almost 20% state-owned farming land and 80% small private farms. Both private and state farms grew hops for beer and potatoes/grain for vodka. If wineyards were possible we would have had them.
frereubu 5y ago
You have two problems here. The first is "dumb af". If you actually want a discussion, remain civil. The second is that climate change is a much longer and more variable process than 20 years. Although you may not have intended it, this comes across a bit like Trump pointing to the fact that there's still snow despite "global warming". Perhaps this is the coldest year in 20 years, but (a) that doesn't change the fact that average temperatures are going up and (b) that the predictions of climate change are a less predictable climate, not just steady year-on-year rises in a single place.