SoCal: this winter's chill hoiurs, and fruit

14 years ago

I live in the north San Fernando Valley and checked the chill hours we got this winter: Santa Clarita 73 and next closest, Glendale 341 - I'm not sure which applies to my area as both of these are separated from me by some mountains.

I had good bloom on my Lapins cherry, now fruiting, and less bloom on Royal Rainier (no fruit yet as it bloomed later). The plums have little to nothing this year. Peaches are all fruiting: Tropic Snow, Galaxy, Red Baron, Mid Pride, Saturn peento. Apricot Canada White Blenheim is really unhappy here - leafing out really poorly with small leaves. It needs much more chill. I also have Japanese flowering cherries and they have hardly grown bigger since I planted them so I guess they need more chill too to thrive. They grow well at Descanso Gardens but not here.

I only planted these trees maybe 5 -6 years ago so I'm still observing - the cherries surprise me though; they were really just an experiment.

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Comments (6)

applenut_gw
14 years ago
The UC Davis chilling hour listing at http://fruitsandnuts.ucdavis.edu/chillcalc/index1.htm gives my town of Riverside 239 hours, pretty typical for us. All my stonefruit is low-chill and the fruit set is heavy. The Minnie Royal cherry tree has a decent crop, but not its pollinator Royal Lee. As usual all the apple trees are having heavy blooms, as they are quite reliable in our climate whereas in the mountains it is iffy because of late frosts.

Applenut
home_grower
14 years ago
The numbers for Santa Clarita can't be right. We have had a cold and rainy winter. My rainier (not royal) is listed as 700 re-planted this year has cherries growing on it. I just planted two Royal Rainiers about 6 weeks ago from bare root so they didn't blossum but have many leaves and about 8 new branches about a foot long or so each.

So far my Katy Apricot, Cot-N-Candy Aprium, Santa Maria Plum and Dapple Dandy Pluot are all bearing a lot of fruit. I thinned most of them down since they were planted from 6/09 to 12/09.

I contribute a lot of it to the extra chill hours here which I estimate around 450 in the north end of Canyon Country.
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I was just going to ask this question. Is there anyone else in zone 10 southern California growing a Lapins cherry? I realize Lapins was kind of a new variety of cherry, released in 1984, and not widely available until the late 80's to early 90's, which has now become superseded by Royal Lee/Royal Minnie, so there may not be that many with experience growing a Lapins in SoCal. But Lapins is kind of unique stand-alone variety in that it does not require another pollinator (it was a cross between Vans and Stella). I'm growing a Lapins in Laguna Niguel on a hillside. There are some big oak trees growing close to it (on the south facing side) so it does get some partial shade during the morning and evening during the Winter season. During the summer, only the base of the tree is shaded (only partially), while the top gets full sun exposure. I think having half the surrounding ground shaded helps keep some moisture in the soil, as well as the surrounding air, which ultimately is helpful to the tree in this climate, since if it was just planted out in the open things could get pretty dry. The tree seems to be pretty resilient, even going for a 3 month stretch with no water. One day I found the main trunk broke, the poor tree and its leaves laying against the ground. so I bent it back and staked it. Miraculously the tree has survived. It's only been in the ground 14 months. It doesn't get watered very often, but when I do I make sure it gets deeply watered. Of course the little tree hasn't fruited yet, but I've heard a report that Lapins is able to produce cherries here, albeit inconsistently, maybe every other year or so. I get the impression that Lapins was the best low chill option available before the arrival of Royal Lee/Royal Minnie. I know even a Bing or Rainier can set blossoms here, if they are in partial shade over the winter (actually my Rainier was PACKED with blossoms, though no cherries). And if Lapins sets blossoms, I think there's a good chance its going to set cherries since it's self-fertile (after being pollinated, less likely to abort fruit set due to low vigor). Interesting, fruitnut, I had heard just the opposite, that self-fertile cherry varieties were suspected to be more likely to set fruit from blossoms. At least that's what orchardist Matthew Søberg Shugart of UC Davis said in his blog.
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Latest Low chill cherries from DWN: The Minnie Royal and Royal Lee sweet cherries are the new entries I have seen in years. Perhaps these may have some chance in some parts of South CA and the Bay Area where you get lower chills. These are new and needed to be tested by brave backyard growers. I can't find a DWN retail nursery that are selling these at the moment, at least not within an hour drive from Davis. DWN Cherries Minnie Royal: Medium-sized red cherry; firm with good flavor; ripens 11-14 days ahead of Bing; tree is very productive with a low chill requirement; mainly used as a pollinizer for Royal Lee; pollenized by Royal Lee (U.S. Plant Patent # 12942 - Zaiger) Royal Lee: Medium-large red cherry; heart-shaped, very firm with excellent flavor; ripens 11-14 days ahead of Bing; tree is very productive with a low chill requirement; pollenized by Minnie Royal(U.S. Plant Patent # 12472 - Zaiger) And this one that's old news: Royal Rainier: a red-blushed "white" variety from Zaiger; large, firm, yellow cherry with very good to excellent quality that ripens ahead of Rainier, holds well on tree, pollenizer required - cross compatible with Bing (U.S. Plant Patent # 10790). Reported to bear fruits for some CRFG members in South California.
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Axel
14 years ago
Applenut, I noticed the opposite on my low chill cherries this year. Royal lee is loaded, but the pollinator variety mini royal is aborting most of its crop. Same with royal Lynn, which I consider the most delicious of all the three. I suspect they may be alternate bearing because last year, all three trees were loaded, and we had less chill last year.
Suzi AKA DesertDance So CA Zone 9b
14 years ago
Enjoying this thread and nice to know we all live in Southern California. My closest stone fruit producing area is Banning and Beaumont. I love to go there and pick their fruit on the "U Pick" orchards in the summer. I'm in Riverside County, but in the Coachella Valley, where grapes, figs, pomegranates and citrus grow free and wild, but no stone fruit. One of our big winter crops here is Artichokes. We get very few chill hours. You could count them on one hand, we get so few!
girlbug2
14 years ago
Greenwitch, I have nearly the identical experience to yours this spring with my peaches and plums. According to the UC Davis site I am not exactly near any of the reporting stations, but I'd guess that Long Beach is my closest climate and they only got 322 chill hours...so my Santa Rosa Plum should have at least set some fruit, but it is bare this spring! very disappointing. Meanwhile all 3 peaches are loaded. At least we know there are pollinators in the area to do the job. I will check with my neighbors to see if any of their backyard plums set.
rasputinj
14 years ago
I am west of the SF Valley in Simi Valley. Mid-Pride/August Pride/Bonita, Desert Delight, Desert Dawn, Sugar Lady, Snow Queen, GoldMine, Saturn, Giant Babcock all are full of peaches/nectarines.

Now Flavor King has 3 pluots, Emerald Drop 0 pluots, Beauty 6 plums, Santa Rosa 6 plums, Methley a ton of plums, Elephant Heart 0. Emerald Drop Flowered before everything, Methley was next, then Flavor King, Beauty, Santa Rosa and then Elephant heart. I am thinking about getting a Burgundy or Flavor Grenade to help and or graft plums to my pluots.

Peaches and Nectarines seem much more productive and consistent then Plums and Pluots. GoldKist Apricot is full of Fruit and my Bleinheim is a younger tree but has a good amount of Apricots on it.

Apples I only Dorsett Golden and Anna with fruit at the moment. Anna only had 1 apple take, it did have an aphid problem and a lot of rain while it was flowering, the Dorsett Golden flowered in the middle of the Anna Flowering and has about 10 apples for a 3-4 year old tree. Pettingal, Gala, Pink Lady are now flowering.

Lapins are flowering well, but only one of my two is setting much fruit. I think my next purchase will be Royal Lee and Minnie Royal which have less chill requirements.

If you are ever in the Camarillo/Somis Area check out Jon's Nursery off Lewis Road, Jon knows his stuff and carries a ton of different fruit trees that will do well in our area. I was there today asking about why my plum/pluots did not produce much.

SoCal: this winter's chill hoiurs, and fruit

Comments (6)

applenut_gw

home_grower

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Suzi AKA DesertDance So CA Zone 9b

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