Below 45 model: 566 Between 45 and 32 model: 545 Utah model: 522 And, you can probably add about 20 more ch to my equation, as I was late in getting my weather station up and online. Carolyn is describing my situation exactly. My pluots are very late to blossom. All pears are still dormant, but I do finally see a couple of leaves starting to push out this week on a couple of my earlier pears. My Peacotum has only now pushed out 2 blossoms. But, good new for my Minnie Royal and Royal Lee, they are better synced, just took two weeks for the Minnie Royal to really open up the blossoms, and some of the earliest Royal Lee blossoms are turning into little cherries. So, I should have my first decent crop of Minnie Royal/Royal Lee cherries this year. I will be building a netting cage for both of them this year, and am taking extensive measures to keep snails out of my trees this year. They were worse than the birds for ruining my stone fruit. I also had quite a few blossoms on both my pleurries I planted in January, but the danged Burgundy plum was much slower to wake up, so no significant cross pollination occurred, so highly unlikely I'll get any pleurries this year, so disappointed. They are interesting looking trees, though. the leaves are very unique. Patty S.

Despite the freak frost that wiped out our avocado, banana, and guava trees, because of the hot weather before and after January our area still only tallied up 350 chilling hours, not nearly enough to justify the apples that are fruiting for me. Meanwhile, Im still waiting for my 5-year-old August Pride apricot to blossom or fruit (which is supposed to be low-chill). So I cannot totally credit a yearÂs crop to the meager cold we get, as there can be several factors, one of which is bi-annual tendencies of some cultivars. Anna and Dorsett Golden have been their usual maniac selves and will harvest early this year, in about a month, and we just made a cobbler from our Florida King peach. On the other hand, many apples are fruiting in their second year that shouldnÂt fruit here at all. We have pea to golf-ball sized apples on Wickson Crab, Kerr Crab, Whitney Crab, Thornberry Crab, Terry Winter, Rome Beauty, Gala, AshmeadÂs Kernel, Queen Cox, WilliamÂs Pride, Ribston Pippin, Snow, Braeburn, Tarbutton, Hawaii, Pink Lady, Coop 37, Coop 40, Coop 41, Gordon, Gold Rush, Royal Limbertwig, Freyberg, Kandil Sinap, Scarlet Sentinel, Washington Strawberry, Yates, Fuji, Granny Smith, and Lord Lambourne. Just starting to blossom are Yellow Newtown Pippin, Stellar, Yellow Transparent, Virginia Winesap, White Winter Pearmain, Court Pendu Plat, Cinnamon Spice, Maiden Blush, Rubinette, Sundowner, and Carolina Red June. I will say that most are not happy here and show classic signs of inadequate chill. The blossoms and leaves come in onesies-twosies instead of a full flush, dragging out for a month (makes for great pollination however). Many trees have golf-ball sized apples and are still blossoming. Some have bare wood towards the trunk unless the branches are pulled almost horizontal. We have some local 6000Â mountain orchards that allow me to compare their performance with a cold climate. YouÂd think that because of our warm winter they would be earlier to blossom, but itÂs just the opposite. They are at least a full month later than the same variety up in the mountains because of the lack of chill. Yellow Transparent should be fruiting at the end of this month, but itÂs just now blossoming. We have no disease or pests, but I can see how this long blossom period would drive folks nuts trying to time sprays. The low-chill apples will crop and then continue to blossom all the way through Thanksgiving, often setting a smaller second crop. But rest assured we eventually do get a full crop and it really doesnÂt matter how late they blossom, the later the better. Our season is never-ending and they can hang on the tree until February if they want. Two Fujis are our oldest trees and they have adapted well to our climate, blossoming a month earlier each year and doing so in a full flush. Because they ripen in our winter with 80-degree days and 39-degree nights, the quality and color is outstanding, as it is with other late varieties like Gold Rush and Pink Lady. I feel bewildered and a bit cheated that weÂve been told all these years that apples wonÂt grow in a warm climate, and think of all the people that have missed out on some wonderful apples because of this myth. The myth is universal also, with even our own University of California system saying that apples need so much cold to break dormancy and zone 8 is marginal for growing them. If this is true, then why do Granny Smith and Pink Lady never lose their leaves here in zone 10 over winter, and yet still blossom and set a full crop of fruit with the new leaves pushing out the old? Yes, the habits are different and the color may not be quite up to snuff, but the result is a full crop of high-quality apples that blow the doors off anything in the supermarket, including all the popular varieties like Pink Lady, Gala, Fuji, Braeburn, Delicious, Granny Smith, and Golden Delicious (Pink Lady even does well out in the low desert of Palm Springs and Las Vegas, graveyards to other apple varieties). So when it comes to apples, ignore the chilling hours and plant what you want. DonÂt be so quick to attribute lack of fruit to inadequate chilling hours, as there may be other reasons like lack of pollination, multi-grafts (a bad idea here), late-bearing varieties (Fuji takes 5 years to really fruit), bi-annualism, or too much fertilizer. I wish I could say the same for other stone fruit like peaches, apricots and cherries- traditional chilling theory seems to be all too true for them. Applenut

I agree with applenut. Just try it out. There are so many microclimates. I'm really surprised to see on that website that Napa locations like Oakville have fewer chill hours than a lot of Central Valley locations, or even Concord. It always seems a lot colder up in the valley in the winter, and I see much more freeze damage. It's also interesting that there are such wide ranges of microclimates in a small area. In Santa Barbara county, chill hours range between 150 and 1500! And in San Diego county, they range from 60 to 800! Your 850 in Union City is not that much, actually. You're borderline for a lot of apple varieties, and you might have some trouble with those northern blueberries. I figure, it's generally better to get low chill varieties so you don't have to worry about whether or not it's going to be cold enough, since it won't matter.

The fruit trees should produce at least a few fruits by the fourth year. That's really when the trees have become semi-mature. This could mean you will have to wait for summer next year (because the first year does not count if it was not planted in the spring). If you still do not see any fruit appear on any of your fruit trees by next year, something is likely wrong. Maybe you are giving your trees too much fertilizer? That can sometimes delay fruiting. Also where is your location? If you are in climate zones 8-10, the trees might not be getting enough chill (and if that is the case there are certain things that can be done to help counteract this). Or your area might have experienced late chill this year, which prevented fruit from forming. Are the crabapples sending out blossoms at the same time as the apples? Have you seen any bees visiting the blossoms? How close are the pear trees to each other? If they are more than 20-30ft apart, that may be making pollination difficult in the early years.