Anybody in Alaska? 6a

[Dorky_gearhead]

Me and my wife have been kicking around the idea of moving to Alaska. The land is super cheap (compared to california) as well as just everything else. Anybody here thats in alaska? What are your favorite trees to bonsai?

 

[just.wing.it]

Ice tree.

 

[GrimLore]

Me and my wife have been kicking around the idea of moving to Alaska. The land is super cheap (compared to california) as well as just everything else. Anybody here thats in alaska? What are your favorite trees to bonsai?

You get what you pay for - trust me on this, the crime is ridiculous by any standards...

Grimmy

 

[Saddler]

I spent the first 26 years in the Yukon. Land is cheap because it is almost useless. Unless you are logging or mining, there is very little land that can be farmed and the crops are limited with the very short growing season. Where in a Alaska does make a big difference, but I can’t imagine the amount of work to grow and winter bonsai with how slow they would grow with the short summers. If you are into nature and outdoor activities, it’s an adventurers paradise.

 

[Saddler]

You get what you pay for - trust me on this, the crime is ridiculous by any standards...

Grimmy

I don’t know about Alaska, but the crime rate has been through the roof the last couple of years. Lots of people can’t handle the short days, the cold, being indoors 99% of the time, overly curious neighbors, to name a few things and turn to drugs. A lot of seasonal work leads to a lot of unemployment in the winter. Drugs and unemployment turn into crime. Lots of crime. 8 murders last year in a territory that has 40,000 people.

 

[GGB]

dear god, don't do that. And to answer your question I can't think of anyone on here who's anywhere near that far north

 

[Solaris]

I loved Alaska when I was stationed there, but...
- Growth is going to be really, really fucky between the midnight sun and two-to-six months of night.
- Crime, because the locals go nowhere fast
- Serial killers, because it's where the people who don't fit in with society go to escape society
- Nature's serial killers, because up there you're part of the food chain. Everyone has a story about a stupid tourist who thought trying to nudge the moose in the middle of the road to get it to move would end with anything but his car getting totaled. You get out into the boonies, a nontrivial percentage of the population know someone who's been eaten by a bear.
- I've seen -70* weather in Ft Wainwright; you're probably going to need to overwinter your plants indoors unless they're native species
- Crazy people, because all of the above tends to wear on the sanity. You also get a lot of people who think they're rugged individualists going up to Alaska, and they crash and burn because that's pretty much the one place in America that you can't survive on your own.

On the upside, still better than living in the Rust Belt or central Texas, so...

 

[Anthony]

Perhaps a vacation, in a cabin to see and feel.
This is what we suggest to folk wanting to move to
the Caribbean.
And you do this for every island ------- at least 2 months.
For x years,
Good Day
Anthony

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I gave a talk on growing orchids under lights to the Anchorage Orchid Society. One of their members was a member of the Anchorage Bonsai Society. A small group of maybe 35 people. If you live relatively close to the ocean, the climate is not wildly different than Chicago. I was there in February. By the way, land in Anchorage is expensive, because so much is tied up with military bases, the land open for homes and development is limited. Bonsai is possible in Anchorage, many do tropicals under lights, spruce is popular for outdoor bonsai.

The Alaska interior is another matter. While it was +15F in Anchorage, it was -40 F in Fairbanks. Not many doing bonsai.

Juneau has a fairly mild Pacific Northwest climate. Bonsai would be possible and fairly similar to Seattle or Vancouver scenes.

 

[GGB]

technically I'm in the rust belt, Bethlehem Steel WAS a big deal. It's pretty nice here. Although I'd trade up for Maryland or Virginia anyday. @Dorky_gearhead ever consider coming east?

 

[M. Frary]

it was -40 F

My kind of place.

 

[bonsai-ben]

Well, you wont have to worry what it looks like in real life. You'll have like one visitor, and it'll be a moose.

Cheap for a reason! So are stick trees. Nobody wants them nobody wants to live there!@

 

[Bavarian Raven]

Well Engelmann spruce, subalpine fir, yellow cedar, mtn hemlock, sitka spruce etc would all do well in the gulf of alaska area (and are mostly native there), and all make great bonsai IMHO

 

[Saddler]

Well Engelmann spruce, subalpine fir, yellow cedar, mtn hemlock, sitka spruce etc would all do well in the gulf of alaska area (and are mostly native there), and all make great bonsai IMHO

It’s one thing for them to grow in the ground. It’s completely another for them growing in a pot. The roots don’t get more then a couple degrees below freezing in the ground, even at -40°. Extended freeze thaw cycles in spring and fall would be difficult to contend with, water one nice spring day and wake up the next morning to half your pots broken because they all froze unexpectedly to -10° C that night. Weather forecasts don’t mean too much up there with the weather stations being spaced so much further apart then down south.

A few years ago my wife and I considered moving to the Yukon. My final consensus was that the amount of money it would take wasn’t worth the results. I relegated myself to finding some nice trees to bring back south when we eventually moved. We never went because property is too expensive and the internet sucks and is WAY to expensive for my usage.

 

[Bavarian Raven]

It’s one thing for them to grow in the ground. It’s completely another for them growing in a pot. The roots don’t get more then a couple degrees below freezing in the ground, even at -40°. Extended freeze thaw cycles in spring and fall would be difficult to contend with, water one nice spring day and wake up the next morning to half your pots broken because they all froze unexpectedly to -10° C that night. Weather forecasts don’t mean too much up there with the weather stations being spaced so much further apart then down south.

A few years ago my wife and I considered moving to the Yukon. My final consensus was that the amount of money it would take wasn’t worth the results. I relegated myself to finding some nice trees to bring back south when we eventually moved. We never went because property is too expensive and the internet sucks and is WAY to expensive for my usage.

All very true. You'd have to keep your pots insulated etc against the cold, etc. (Being on the coast would help a lot ). But it can be done.

 

[Solaris]

I gave a talk on growing orchids under lights to the Anchorage Orchid Society. One of their members was a member of the Anchorage Bonsai Society. A small group of maybe 35 people. If you live relatively close to the ocean, the climate is not wildly different than Chicago. I was there in February. By the way, land in Anchorage is expensive, because so much is tied up with military bases, the land open for homes and development is limited. Bonsai is possible in Anchorage, many do tropicals under lights, spruce is popular for outdoor bonsai.

The Alaska interior is another matter. While it was +15F in Anchorage, it was -40 F in Fairbanks. Not many doing bonsai.

Juneau has a fairly mild Pacific Northwest climate. Bonsai would be possible and fairly similar to Seattle or Vancouver scenes.

Ah, you must have been there during the warm part of winter... or the place has gotten some badly needed global warming.
Were the locals walking around in shorts, or was it during the first half of winter?

 

[M. Frary]

6a in Alaska?
I'm 4 in Michigan.
But the days are normal.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Ah, you must have been there during the warm part of winter... or the place has gotten some badly needed global warming.
Were the locals walking around in shorts, or was it during the first half of winter?

I was there last 2 weeks of February, locals had begun wearing shorts. My host commented that "it was so nice to feel the slight warmth of the sun on your face" in December and January the brief couple hours the sun is up, you don't even feel the heat.

Every house I passed, you saw the glow of under lights grow systems. The little bit of green of the indoor garden helps with the winter blues. Some raised orchids, other house plants, a few raised bonsai and many raised marijuana. This was 2008 before the wave of states legalizing marijuana. In Alaska, people didn't seem to care.

 

[Dorky_gearhead]

Were looking into the ancor point area. Its north of homer by 5-10 miles. From what i have found the crime rate is pretty low. Alot lower than porterville ca. Even if we dont eventually live in alaska we are buying land for vacation (to get away from people and the problems of city life). The biggest hurdle is going to be locating property that suits our needs. Theres alot of plots that range from 5-20 acres, but we would be okay with 2, or 3. The problem with finding a smaller plot is they seem to cost the same as a 20 acre plot (kinda confusing). I have wanted a farm of my own ever since i can remember. As a kid i was the one tending to my grandmas vegetables, and from a young age i knew that was the life for me.

One thing that i can see as a problem for myself is fish. Im not the biggest fan of fish. I tend to really do mine up. Ill have to have a 20 gallon drum of dipping sauce lol.