Zone 9b - Flower Farming in San Diego

Agriculture and farming are prevalent here in San Diego but there are several micro climates as you move throughout the region. What we could grow in Lakeside is different than what works in our new home in Alpine, even though it is the same growing zone. As we journeyed into flower farming and growing on a larger scale for retail, we quickly learned that the land will dictate what grows well and not just the zone on the back of the seed packets.

For our area the first and last estimated frost dates can be off by 4 - 6 weeks depending on the weather patterns that season. In the beginning we killed A LOT of plants. For David and I we like to quote one of our mentors Bob Goff “failure is just another Tuesday”. Our motto on the farm is if we aren’t failing then we aren’t trying. It is all part of the growth journey.

What’s Growing in 2024

For the 2024 season we are focused on plants that I love and that are proving to like our micro climate where we range from 50 degree nights to 100 degree days. We planted over a thousand cool annual plants in January including snapdragons, strawflower, orlaya, lisianthus, and feverfew. As the temperatures started to warm we sowed the seeds for our warm annuals in the greenhouse. This includes zinnias, single stem sunflowers, cosmos, eucalyptus, lemon and cinnamon basil. We also started waking up our dahlia tubers in early March. All the flowers went out into the field in early April with frost cloth for our 30 - 40 degree nights.

Challenges with Cool Season Annuals

Our weather in zone 9b can be tricky. We go from a mild winter and spring right to the heat of summer. This final week of June in San Diego is averaging 90 - 100 degrees in the day and 50 at night. We also can get covered in fog from the marine layer in June which causes our snapdragon plants to rust over and eventually be pulled after one flush of blooms. Our trial of orlaya and feverfew started strong but the heat quickly took them out. We don’t even mess with stock in our area as they like a consistent 70 degrees which we do not get in Alpine.

Flowers Thriving in June

Our heat loving plants like dahlias, zinnias, sunflowers, lisianthus, basil and eucalyptus are thriving with these warmer evenings. We mitigate the heat with the installation of shade cloths that block 50% of the rays. This causes our plants to reach for the sun and create long beautiful stems. We also adjust our watering patterns to more frequent early morning schedules to ensure they stay hydrated throughout the day. We love our B-hyve system which allows us to program, monitor and adjust our watering zones on the app throughout the week as necessary.

Thanks for following along our journey and we hope that you get inspired to spread joy in your area through the gift of flowers!