All You Ever Wanted to Know About Phenology But Were Afraid to Ask

[Chuck Rhode]

I've updated my Phenology Extension to v1.3 for WeeWX 4.6.2. There
are no new features.

My WeeWX extension may be downloaded from its own Web site, which
assumes the reader has already installed WeeWX and is familiar with
its architecture and configuration.

o http://lacusveris.com/Phenology

The discussion on the Web site about phenology in general and the need
for models of insect and plant development is aimed at enthusiasts.
Casual readers may, of course, skip the boring bits.

Suffice it to say that phenology is the study of seasonal biological
development. Growth of plants and animals is dependent on food,
nutrients, water, and light. Assuming that these are abundant, the
factor that determines the speed of development is temperature. Models
of crop and insect development are thus based on daily temperatures.
Developmental stages are observed to follow the product of temperature
and time: Growing Degree-Days.

The Web site delves into chemical treatments for apple codling moth,
using this insect as an example of applying a Growing Degree-Day
developmental model to a real-world problem. The data from a weather
station tracks daily minimum and maximum temperatures, and my WeeWX
extension charts when egg laying is likely to be occurring based on
cumulative Growing Degree-Days. Then orchard spraying can begin with
less risk of waste due to starting too early or too late.

--
.. Be Seeing You,
.. Chuck Rhode, Sheboygan, WI, USA
.. Weather: http://LacusVeris.com/WX
.. 40° — Wind NW 5 mph — Sky overcast.

[Seth Ratner]

Chuck,

I doesn't look like you keep your extension on GitHub. What did you change in 1.3?

I know there were a lot of similarities between my Chill Hours xType project and what your extension does. I'm interested in how you went about accomplishing something similar.

Seth

[Chuck Rhode]

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On Thu, 17 Feb 2022 10:27:48 -0800 (PST)
Seth Ratner <lordr...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I doesn't look like you keep your extension on GitHub. What did you
> change in 1.3?

I don't use GitHub because Git and GitHub are *terra incognita* to me.
I've tried to grok them but to no avail ... yet. How did you learn it?
I really need to order the Dummies book.

The new version of the *WeeWX Phenology* extension is at:

o http://lacusveris.com/Phenology/weewx-phenology-1.3.tar.gz

The old version is at:

o http://lacusveris.com/Phenology/weewx-phenology-1.2.tar.gz

There are no new features. Most of the changes were to
bin/user/phenologygenerator.py, which is a reimplementation of
bin/imagegenerator.py. I thought I needed a more featureful plotting
package. The updates this time around are due to calling-sequence
changes in the functions defined in imagegenerator and in
weewx.reportengine, weewx.xtypes, weeutil.config, weeutil.weeutil, and
weeplot.utilities.


- --

.. Be Seeing You,
.. Chuck Rhode, Sheboygan, WI, USA
.. Weather: http://LacusVeris.com/WX

.. 22° — Wind N 10 mph — Sky overcast.

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[Seth Ratner]

I only know the capabilities of Github well enough to get my project on there. Depending on what you use to code (I started using VS Code) it can integrate tightly with GitHub. 

I used this to get started: https://adamtheautomator.com/visual-studio-code-github-setup/

But as the most simplistic level, once I finish a project I just load the files and folders into a new Github repository and make it public. I will say, once you get used to it, the ability to go through someone else's project is greatly enhanced due to function linking, saved changes, etc. 

Cheers!

[Chuck Rhode]

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You mentioned Chill Hours. This keeps coming up, and I've wondered
whether I ought to try to tackle it, but it's not a hot-button issue
for me. I'm aware that most apple varieties require differing amounts
of "chill hours" to bloom. However, the consideration of chill hours
available in any given location is usually moot once an orchard is
planted. I suppose it's possible that chill hours must be calculated
annually for other kinds of crops. Also, people are sensitive to
supposed climate shifts nowadays. They want to verify government
figures for chill hours, so desire to do these calculations has some
currency.

There are other types of calculations similar to chill hours and
growing degree-days. Have you looked into Pollen Tube Growth Models?

o http://weather.wsu.edu/PollenModel/PollenTubeModel.pdf

The *.pdf file has an internal date of 18 Mar 2014. It's impossible to
tell from the presentation foils whether this remains an active locus
of research, but I thought it was an intriguing idea. You count open
apple blossoms, and, when you have enough for a good crop, you wait
until the pollen tubes from the first blooms have had enough growing
degree-days to reach the ovules. Then you repeatedly nuke all the
blooms chemically to be sure there isn't any excessive fruit set.

- --
.. Be Seeing You,
.. Chuck Rhode, Sheboygan, WI, USA
.. Weather: http://LacusVeris.com/WX

.. 2° — Wind WNW 20 mph

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