Author Topic: North-facing hillsides  (Read 2292 times)

barath

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North-facing hillsides
« on: March 01, 2018, 03:10:59 AM »
I'm curious what folks think of North-facing hillsides (that is, the hill goes down as you go North, here in California) for tropical fruit growing.  My concern is that in the middle of winter there will be less light because of shade from the hill.  The area I'm interested in is ideal otherwise in terms of microclimate (probably zone 10b/11a and quite hot in the summer) but it has a North-facing hillside that I worry won't allow enough light for some tropicals in the winter.  Does anyone know whether this is an issue, and if so for which tropical fruits?

pineislander

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Re: North-facing hillsides
« Reply #1 on: March 01, 2018, 06:47:38 AM »
You might try out playing with this sun calculator tool to see exactly what effect you may have. It integrates with satellite mapping.
Try out different dates and times. You can input how big a tree would be and watch it's shadow in an animation through the day.
This is a very powerful tool when looking at sun availability.
https://www.suncalc.org/#/28.715,-81.9632,10/2018.03.01/06:45/1/2

spaugh

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Re: North-facing hillsides
« Reply #2 on: March 01, 2018, 01:19:00 PM »
My neighbor has a lot of trees on a north hill.  They get ok production from some stuff.  But other plants seem to just not produce.  Its probably partially the north hill and partially how they care for their trees.  Seems like they need more mulch and fertilizer and watering setup is questionable.

I posted some photos of their jungle here:
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=24623.0
Brad Spaugh

Seanny

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Re: North-facing hillsides
« Reply #3 on: March 01, 2018, 03:23:58 PM »
Model your surrounding in Sketchup Make. It's free.
Add your coordinates. Turn on shadow. You can watch shadows any time of the year.

Then pick your trees.

barath

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Re: North-facing hillsides
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2018, 11:35:06 PM »
Thanks for all these suggestions!

barath

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Re: North-facing hillsides
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2018, 02:23:58 AM »
My neighbor has a lot of trees on a north hill.  They get ok production from some stuff.  But other plants seem to just not produce.  Its probably partially the north hill and partially how they care for their trees.  Seems like they need more mulch and fertilizer and watering setup is questionable.

I posted some photos of their jungle here:
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=24623.0

Do you have a gut sense of which trees don't produce well if they don't get enough direct sun?

spaugh

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Re: North-facing hillsides
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2018, 10:34:25 AM »
Seems like avocado is doing the worse over at the neighbors house.  They are on a really steep hill too by the way.  With lots of shade trees and a house above the grove.  So with the exception of things that have to hang for 14+ months on the tree, you would most likely not have much issue.

That is assuming you don't have anything at the top of your hill to the south, it should be OK.  During summer, the hill will get plenty of sun.

I realized now you are further north so that may have impact on your trees also.  Now is a good time of year to go observe the hill and see how much shade its getting. 

Plant tall trees at the bottom (north end) of hill.  A little planning will go a long way.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2018, 10:40:17 AM by spaugh »
Brad Spaugh

Bush2Beach

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Re: North-facing hillsides
« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2018, 11:07:13 AM »
North facing hillsides and Tropicals seem like a bad match in CA. Your concerns are valid, avoid north facing if possible. 

barath

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Re: North-facing hillsides
« Reply #8 on: March 02, 2018, 10:33:58 PM »
Hmm, ok.  I'm going to have to rethink this one...

joehewitt

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Re: North-facing hillsides
« Reply #9 on: March 04, 2018, 05:02:34 PM »
My backyard is a north facing slope. It’s not the end of the world. Yes, things grow slower and get going later in spring. I wouldn’t want to grow a commercial orchard here, but I’m just a hobbyist so the reduced yield is acceptable.

Bush2Beach

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Re: North-facing hillsides
« Reply #10 on: March 04, 2018, 08:59:48 PM »
Thats true, light exposure is the most important thing . It can be difficult to gauge how much sun exposure you'll get year round at many locations. You'll probably get a good feel for what you can grow by checking out the land and soil and what plants are growing around. There are good North facing light situations like Joe's, the ones that usually come to my mind are frosty and see very little of the sun in winter.

FreshOne

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Re: North-facing hillsides
« Reply #11 on: March 04, 2018, 09:01:51 PM »
I have a African Pride atemoya tree in the north facing part of the yard. Between thanksgiving to late Feb it sees very little to no sunlight. Right now it gets about 3 hr/day and 8+hrs of sunlight in the summer time. First year in the ground I managed to get three delicious medium fruits, and this year 15 medium to large fruits. The tree is very vigorous and I'm trying to keep it compact as I have limited space. It's about 7' now and I'm going to prune it back to 4' in a few weeks.

PltdWorld

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Re: North-facing hillsides
« Reply #12 on: March 04, 2018, 09:40:29 PM »
Our yard is north facing and drops into a canyon.  In addition to shade and height (so as not to shade out lower growing trees and plants), another consideration needs to be temperature - the lower elevations in our yard see much more extreme swings in summer and winter.  Within our yard, I have tried planting stuff all over the place over the last 10 years - with a lot of failures early on.

I have learned to keep things in pots for longer than I normally would, and test out different locations in the yard.

My in-ground plants/trees include:

Tropical/Sub-Tropical:
Mangos
Guava (Asian, Tropical White, Red Malaysian)
Lemon Guava
Jaboticaba
Passiflora
Banana
Cherimoya
Atemoya
Sugar Cane
Inga
Grumichama (E. brasilensis)
Pitanga (Surinam Cherry)

Temperate:
Citrus (Valencia Orange, Cara Cara, Eureka Lemon, Key Lime)
Stone Fruit (Apricot, Peach, Nectarine, Plum, Plumcot)
Blueberries
Boysenberry
Fig
Grapes
Avocado
Cherry
Feijoa
Apple
Pear
Pomegranate


In addition to the plants listed above, my neighbors (with same north facing slope) also are growing:

macademia
loquat
grapefruit
pomelo
kumquat


And I'm probably forgetting some.  The last frost 2 weeks ago killed my third attempt at growing Papaya on the slope... if I can get one to survive through one winter, I'm positive I can get it to fruit here - I've seen plenty fruiting nearby.  I also have a lot of plants in containers waiting to go into the ground (right spot, right time, right size, etc) including Cambuca and a Brazilian Guava, both of which are doing very well.

So, north facing hillside doesn't guarantee death to your plants - but we're not putting in a pool anytime soon, and if you have an opportunity to buy property that faces south/southwest, well... I would.