Frost Free days
Frost free days and growing season are related but different.
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Frost-free days, is the average number of days between the last frost of spring and the first killing frost of fall or winter. This average is calculated by adding the max and min daily temperature and dividing by two. A +1 daily average can mean -10 during the night if you have a large diurnal variation as we do in the Yukon.
The growing season is the period of the year when crops and other plants grow successfully. The length of a growing season varies from place to place and differe between plants. Some plants are frost tolerate and even prefer temperatures that dip below 0 but other are intolerant of such cold temperatures and die when these temperatures are reached. Beans, cucumbers, eggplant, musk melon, okra, peppers, pumpkins, squash, sweet corn, sweet potato, potatoes and tomatoes will all be damaged by even a light frost, but many other crops will survive. These can best be divided into two categories: semi-hardy and hardy |