Chill hour requirements for fruit trees?
shik_77
5 years ago
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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
5 years agonmfruit
5 years agoRelated Discussions
Orangered Apricot Chill Hour Requirements?
Comments (7)One paper below found Orangered required 1266 chill units as per dynamic model (UC Davis may give those hrs). That was the most of 10 cultivars studied. My results in the greenhouse would rate it as needing the most chilling of anything I have Robada probably being next most. Orangered bloomed poorly, ~5%, at ~600-800 Utah hrs in 11 and 12 but started to break bud before I finished this year at 1270 Utah. I think part of my issue in 2011 and 12 was that I jumped into 16 hrs per day chilling Nov 1 and the trees may not have been ready to accept chilling at that point. This year in addition to running a month later I gave the trees until Nov 22 to start chilling. I'd say Orangered is a poor candidate in Vista. If you can chill it you aren't really a low chill area, a possibility I guess. But I've been following your weather some and the last month looks more like summer than winter to me. Maybe you have a cooler microclimate than weather.com shows. Here is a link that might be useful: apricot chilling requirement This post was edited by fruitnut on Sun, Feb 2, 14 at 16:31...See MoreReal Low Chill Fruit Trees
Comments (19)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...See MoreFruit trees in low chill areas
Comments (1)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...See MoreFig tree chill hours
Comments (3)I live in central Florida where we do get down to 32* with the chill factors. Have my 2celestial & 1black mission for 25 years and really enjoy them. Was still picking black mission a couple of weeks ago before it got cold. These cooler nights are helping our trees produce in the spring....See Moreshik_77
5 years agoEmbothrium
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
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