Selection of an appropriate planting time (between the last and the first frost)

Abstract

Yearly frost and freezing, especially during the spring season often causes heavy damages to fruit trees in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, Iran. Therefore, to reduce the effects of this natural event hazard, approaches should be developed to minimize the damages. One of the long run methods to prevent frost and freezing is the selection of an appropriate planting time. So, a proper comprehensive task is essential to find when the first and last frost occurs. In this research, the yearly first and last frost event dates of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province were determined using available climate data records and then the spatial continuous distribution map of frost was obtained using Arc GIS software. On this basis, the first and the last frost dates with different return periods for various part of the province were determined. According to this research, for instance, with the probability of 50% (return period= 2 years), the first frost dates alter from 17 October (for Shahrekord) to 15 November (for Lordegan) and the last frost dates alter from 29 March (for Lordegan) to 29 April (for Dezak).