As my cherries have now been in the ground for almost 2 years, I can now comment about the effect lack of chill has. The effect appears to be much more pronounced on all the cherries that receive full sun exposure. It is now July, and the leaf size of most of the cherries is small to undersized, and not all sections of the tree have leaves. The leaves are primarily on the tips of the branches, or on some of the trees near the base, closer to the ground. I suspect this is due to lack of vigor, but it seems even after several months the leaf growth has not been able to catch up. It is as if the growth just sort of stalled, and now the growth is very slow. I suspect there may be a feedback cycle, and because of the inadequate chill the plant has not been able to come totally out of dormancy, in terms of circulating hormone levels in the plant. Interestingly the Bing cherry seems to be growing much more vigorously than the others. It is full of leaves, and the leaves are big and full-sized. All this is in the lower part of the tree though; the top branch is a little sparse of leaves, and there are only a few little leaves coming out of the top tip. I am thinking this may be because the top gets more sun exposure. Interesting that the Bing appears to be growing more vigorously than the Royal Lee cherries. But one possible factor, it is one year older than the Royal Lee trees, so that may have given it a little more time to become established. The cherries with partial shade appear to be doing better than the ones in full sun, and also flowered and leafed out earlier. The full-sized kwanzan (flowering) cherry that I planted in January last year appears to have very sparse leaf coverage, and very small leaves. It is obvious it did not get adequate chill (despite this past winter being colder than usual). I would have thought that by July its leaf growth might have been able to catch up, but that is not the case. Both the kwanzan seedlings have survived. One has 2 medium sized leaves on it and 2 tiny leaves; the other has many small leaves on it now, and has sent up a tiny little new branch (more like just a stem) from the top. I have been making sure they receive water and that the soil does not get too dry. The little Yoshino seedling appears to be doing about as well as the kwanzan. Growth on all the cherries appears to be very slow (though the Bing has put out some new branches). The Blenheim apricot has done well; there were even 11 fruits on the tree this year, though they were a little small and a few of them were undersized or fell off the tree before halfway before ripening. Pretty good considering that Blenheim is not really a "low chill" variety (supposedly requires 400 chill hours). Some fruits may be more "adaptable" than other fruits, though.

When I lived in San Diego Ein Sheimer apple was my favorite and best producer. It is an excellent apple sauce apple, excellent flavor even from small green apples. It got confused and started blooming in winter a couple of times and actually had fruit. Winter Banana was my second favorite. Living on a canyon, I liked particularly growing citrus since possums and raccoons wouldn't bother them because of the acidic peels. I wish I could grow those now.:-( And while I get enough chill for all those stone fruits, I have had plum and peach trees get diseased and die in 2-3 years, and most of my cherry trees have bacterial canker and haven't borne fruit for years. My current direction is to plant mulberries, paw paws, and persimmons.:-P

fruitgirl, Thank you for the link. That's a really good one, and I've bookmarked it. farmerdilla, The reason I was concerned about low chill fruit trees is because I had seen so many of them requiring 1000-1200 chill hours, and I know we don't get that much. I checked the weather for the last 10 years. This area used to get that many chill hours, but not for quite a while. However, that nursery has good recommendations and explains the cultivars very well for the south. Thank you for the link. I've bookmarked that one, too. I want to get several fruit trees and some blueberry plants next Spring. The previous owner planted two bearing peaches and two flowering peaches. We are going to remove the flowering ones. What are they good for, anyway? Removal of two additional ugly bushes will leave room for about six trees. Thank you both for the advice on the trees and the low chill question. I really appreciate the response. Karen

Here is a pic of my tropic snow peach. It is about 2.5 yrs old and was bought as a 3gal. The first year I had it it suffered severely with what I thought was bac spot. Copper nor captan did anything to change it so i assumed I was right about it not being fungus. It looked remarkably like yours now. I did not apply a dormant spray, and as a matter of fact, I have not sprayed it for anything since the couple of times in the first year. The fence is 6', I would estimate the tree now about 12'. It has been grown in full sun since I planted it. You can't tell, but it really does have an open center. I am in Pasco County, zone 9a. My suggestion would be to let it be, I think it will rebound nicely next year.