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By collecting rain from a roof during rain events and storing it in a barrel or cistern, homeowners can create an alternative water supply to irrigate their home gardens and landscaping that will not overpump the groundwater or increase the water bill. In this example, a typical home garden would be 400 ft2 on which the homeowner plans to irrigate using a 55-gal heavy-duty plastic barrel with a spigot located near the bottom of the tank. The objective of this study was to develop a spreadsheet-based model using daily data to determine how the watering habits of home gardeners affect the amount of available supplemental irrigation water and cost savings using a typical 55-gal rain barrel, thus resulting in a more realistic cost-benefit analysis. The model allows for multiple, user-selected criteria such as the size of the barrel, number of barrels, harvest efficiency of the guttering system, size of the garden, the catchment area, and the watering habits of the homeowner (such as how many days without precipitation have occurred before they feel the need to water), which were used to develop seven different scenarios. To optimize rainwater use and cost benefits, the following parameters are recommended: catchment area of 600 ft2, 90% harvest efficiency by reducing leaks and other problems with guttering and rain barrel, threshold of 0.10 inch for a wet day, minimum of only 2 dry days before using the water in the barrel, and one overflow barrel. In this case, a homeowner in Knoxville, TN, can harvest an average of 1570 gal per season (range of 1076–2076 gal), at an average cost savings of $22, and thus recover the cost of the two barrels in 3–6 years.

The daily light integral (DLI) is a measurement of the total amount of photosynthetically active radiation delivered over a 24-hour period and is an important factor influencing plant growth over weeks and months. Contour maps were developed to demonstrate the mean DLI for each month of the year across the contiguous United States. The maps are based on 30 years of solar radiation data for 216 sites compiled and reported by the National Renewable Energy Lab in radiometric units (watt-hours per m-2·d-1, from 300 to 3,000 nm) that we converted to quantum units (mol·m-2·d-1, 400 to 700 nm). The mean DLI ranges from 5 to 10 mol·m-2·d-1 across the northern U.S. in December to 55 to 60 mol·m-2·d-1 in the southwestern U.S. in May through July. From October through February, the differences in DLI primarily occur between the northern and southern U.S., while from May through August the differences in DLI primarily occur between the eastern and western U.S. The DLI changes rapidly during the months before and after the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, e.g., increasing by more than 60% from February to April in many locations. The contour maps provide a means of estimating the typical DLI received across the U.S. throughout the year.

Peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch.] production in the southeastern United States. has suffered a decline in the past several decades due to late and severe spring freezes. Much of the peach production in Tennessee is located on topographically diverse sites. Peach producers do not have adequate information about the effects of microclimates within their orchards on peach bud development and subsequent freeze risk. Such information may help them select the best adapted cultivars based on microclimate. The objectives of this study were to use a `Redhaven' peach bud development model to compare and contrast the phenology and freeze risks at five sites within the orchard, and to study the freeze characteristics (advective vs. radiative) of these same sites. Automated weather stations were located in topoclimatically different areas of a peach orchard in Dandridge, Tenn., from October 1990 to April 1992. Hourly weather data included average air temperature, chill units (CUs), growing degree hours (GDHs), and wind speed. The data show that the microclimatic factors that affect peach bud development and freeze risk, such as CUs, GDHs, and minimum temperatures, can vary in a topographically diverse orchard, but the effects are not as straightforward as previously reported. For instance, peach buds at a site at a lower elevation may break dormancy later due to slower accumulation of CUs, which could be beneficial to the grower. Then the buds may develop more slowly due to cold air drainage to the lower elevations, which would also be desirable. However, the lower temperatures due to cold air drainage could be damaging to the bud and cause more problems with injuries. Over the two seasons, there were more radiative freezes than advective freezes, but the advective freezes were more severe. Small differences in wind speed can account for surprisingly different freeze conditions during radiative situations. Any improvement in cold air drainage should help decrease the duration and severity of radiative freezes.