G'day Keith,

Botany is a science, gardening is an art. :-)

Maybe you would do better asking your question in groups such as:

sci.agriculture
rec.gardens.ecosystems
rec.gardens.edible
sci.agriculture.fruit
alt.agriculture.fruit

Whatever... I'd be surprised if you found what you're after as such
(but would be bloody interested to know if you do . You're much
more likely to find stuff on "climatic zones", "soil types", etc. as
discrete maps -- you would then need to interpret them based on a
knowledge of the requirements of individual garden crops.

Of course, it's possible (I just think a bit unlikely) that you could
find what you want. Certainly the technology is available (GIS should
make this sort of stuff a breeze -- maybe add comp.infosystems.gis to
that list above) but I remain doubtful that it has been applied at the
level and for the sort of things you're interested in.

Cheers, Phred.


In article , (Keith
Michaels) wrote:
In article ,
userve (Jie-san Laushi) writes:
| My interest is only on common
| vegetable garden crops, not grain or fodder. For example, the
| Matanuska valley in Alaska is cabbage territory.
|
| What information, exactly, are you asking? Are you asking which vegetables
are
| succesfully grown commercially in different places now? Are you looking for
| potential diversification to crops not yet grown in a certain area? There
are
| many sources for the data you mentioned: for climate, my old Time Life
| Encyclopedia of Gardening shows maps of USDA zones, based on average minimum
| winter temperature; zones of date of first and last killing frost; and
general
| vegetation types (e.g., eastern hardwood, Pacific coastal forest).
| Publications by Sunset magazine show more narrowly-defined zones for western
| North America, based on a variety of factors. fertility, there are
surely
| maps of different soil types, on both local and regional scales -- might
want
| to try USDA for starters. For rainfall, the vegetation zone maps give a
| general sense of this (e.g., prairie has less rainfall than broadleaf
forest,
| but more than steppe).
|
| When you say "vegetable carden crops," do you mean a small kitchen garden, a
| market garden/truck farm, or a large-scale commercial operation specializing
in
| one or a few vegetables? Melons, for example, are grown large scale in
Arizona
| and western Texas (long hot season, lots of sun, irrigation), but may be
found
| in small gardens just about everywhere.
|
| Jie-san Laushi

Thank you for the response. I see that the question was poorly asked.
Perhaps a better way to ask is: if I move to Kellogg Idaho, what garden
vegetables will I be able to grow successfully given that particular soil,
climate, rainfall, etc. What about Flagstaff, or Fargo, or Duluth? I
was hoping for a single map showing the range of crops as it varies from
place to place.

-Keith

Cheers, Phred.

--
LID