Thanks, Woofie! I starred your post and bookmarked the state-by-state heat zone map.
Heat Zone:
The average number of days each year that temperatures go over 86 F = 30 C.
(Apparently most plants are damaged above 86F.)
I also wish it was easier to find info about plants' needs for warmth expressed as "growing degree days" or "heat accumulation".
That is calculated by finding each day's average temperature (Max + Min / 2) then subtracting some base temperature like 10 C. Then each day's "degrees over 10 C" are added up over the whole season to see how much heat accumulation there was.
That's the kind of calculation that tells you some climate might be too cool for most tomato varieities to ripen fully.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...
http://www.weather.com/outdoor...
