Thanks Don for all your hard work. Let me know if you find a supplier for small quantities of a dormancy spray. Armobreak was described on the IAAS website as a "Eco-friendly solution to overcome deficient growing conditions for deciduous fruit". Sounds like it would work. One of the lawyers in a local rose club earned his applicator license. He blasted his roses every Sunday morning, joking "First you spray, then you pray." Quality safety equipment is a must with the high powered chemical combination sprays some rose exhibitors use. Below is a thread from Gardenweb regarding chill factor that seems to have been deleted. It gave me the idea for Dormex. Cheating for chill http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fruit/msg1203412322352.html?11 Posted by JoeReal Ca z9/SS z14 (My Page) on Tue, Dec 6, 05 at 10:46 You can spray with Dormex at the proper time, it can give you up to 750 chilling hours equivalent. Or you can spray daily from mid winter to spring, with water from your hose at the coldest time of the day, like starting 6:00-7:00 am. This is supposed to "wash-off" the inhibitors that prevents premature blooming, but I haven't really tried this one. This is one of the experiments I am going to try. Or you can use my portable flodable ice box. I have successfully bloomed and fruited a high chill colonade apple with this one. Ideal for short columnar plants. Look at My Page in this forum. Posted by fruitnut z7,4500ft SW TX (My Page) on Tue, Dec 6, 05 at 13:28 Short of using Dormex, there is not anything easy that will make much difference. Ice will have little to no effect. Remember that only temp between 34-54F are effective, with 37-48F fully effective. So ice at 32F is too cold and cann't easily be applied to the buds where cooling is needed. Evaporative cooling, such as spraying the trees with water when temp is above 48F, can be effective. To work you must have a low dew point, ie, dry air. It would be most effective on clear, dry, sunny afternoons. This is what I'm doing in my greenhouse. But unlike outside, I can cool the air passing thru the house. Outside you would have to wet the trees every 5-10 minutes. In my greenhouse, I can lower the afternoon temp by 10-12F below the outside temp by using the evaporative cooling system. For the 21 day period Nov 15 thru Dec 5, I've accumulated 415 Utah chill hrs; an ave of ~20hr per day. To do this required maintaining a minimum night temp of 37F using the greenhouse heater. Outside temp have ranged from ~20F to ~70F. Outside chill hrs are probably 100 to 160 Utah hrs but are very hard to estimate because the temperature has been swinging wildly from too warm to too cold. If your nights are too cold, which I doubt is your problem, there is very little you can do about it short of an elaborate shelter and heater. My greenhouse with double inflated poly and a shade cloth over the plants provides no more than 1-2F temp rise above ambient ouside temp unless I use the heater. In short, if you really need more chilling try Dormex. The Fruitnut Posted by JoeReal Ca z9/SS z14 (My Page) on Tue, Dec 6, 05 at 14:51 Ice can be effective and it works really well if you know the mechanics of how it is done, it is all in the Physics. If you apply ice to be in contact jaggedly at the surface, it doesn't mean that the surface will have ice temperature most especially if the air temperature is well above freezing point of water. There are air spaces in between the ice cubes. As the ice receives heat from the air or radiation or in contact, it melts due to latent heat of fusion but it cools the air surrounding it. Thus the surface will never be colder than 32 deg F, given the context that you are using it. It is in fact the cooled air that will cool the enclosed branches, not much the contact points of ice. That cool air within the enclosed ice box, I have measured is about 36-38 deg F when incoming air temperature is 45 deg F. As the air in my foldable ice box gets cooled down, they drain slowly (gets heavier and moisture laded from ice) and being replenished by the warm air at the top which in turn cools down slowly, creating ambient environment surrounding the enclosed tree branches to the perfect range for accumulating chilling hours. We measured this in my kid's science project. Physics is really great. Posted by kuffelcreek z9 So. Calif. (My Page) on Tue, Dec 6, 05 at 16:34 High-chill apples can easily be induced to fruit in almost any climate by stripping the leaves off by early spring. Gary Matsuoka at Laguna Hills nursery has done this for years, as have other CRFG members in Orange County (250 chill hours). Apples are grown in many tropical climates this way, including Nicaragua, Honduras, Thailand, and Indonesia. I do not know if it will work with other stone fruits (it doesn't work on peaches). Another study cites that wetting the tree often through winter causes the growth inhibitors to break down. Here is a link that might be useful: Laguna Hills Nursery, Apples

milehighgirl: With stonefruit there is some reason to think that higher chill may help. Certainly you wouldn't want the very low chill cultivars. But the highest chilling peaches and nectarines I've seen are about 1200 hrs. That should help in some areas of Texas where chilling ranges from 100 to 1200+ hrs. But will it help in Denver where you probably have 2000-2400?? Probably not much. With peaches the approach to avoiding spring frost has mostly been to chose cultivars that are more resistant to low temp at bloom. Two I've grown that fit that bill are Surecrop and Contender. Once made a few peaches with Surecrop after two night in a row of 13F at full bloom. I'm in an area with ~700 chill hrs. Chill hrs or whatever does have quite an influence on bloom date here. 200 chill hr peaches bloom in Jan or Febr. High chillers in late Febr or early March. But the freezes that get us are usually late March or the first two weeks of April. Another factor that is involved is the heat requirement a cultivar has after chilling has been satisfied. Grapes have a very low chilling requirement, about 100hrs, but a very high heat requirement to initiate spring growth. As a result they bloom late. The Fruitnut

For spring planting I purchased from Willis Orchards in Georgia; 1. Red Baron Peach Tree 6-7' (1" caliper - Fruiting Size)250 chill hours 1. Sunred Nectarine Tree 6-7' (3/4-1" caliper - Fruiting Size)200-300 Chill Hours 1. Tropic Gold Apricot Tree 5-6' (1" caliper - Fruiting Size)350 chill hours http://www.willisorchards.com The Red Baron is a patented variety of unsurpassed excellence. Not only is the fruit a large, beautiful red, but the tree itself is prized for its large double red blossoms that cover the tree for several weeks in early spring. These delicious 3" diameter fruits ripen over an extended period of time from mid-July to mid-August I was looking specifically for the Red Baron peach tree for the double blossoms and extended ripening. Lou

I have done the same thing in SE Texas for the same reason. I am north of Beaumont with an average in the 500 to 600. My La Feliciana is just starting to bloom. I have a White Delight 2 peach, new from Texas A&M that has been blooming for a week or two and is in full bloom. It is rated at 550. Loring is suppose to be one of the best tasting peach and has a 750 chill hour rating. I would not go above 750-800 hours. June Prince is another variety that is 650 that should work. You might even want to go with a low variety like Florida Crest at 350-400. It is adapted and mine already has marble sized peaches. Yes, it bloomed very early but with the cold weather coming on Monday it will withstand the cold better than the varieties that are blooming. Gulf Crimson is another that has grown well and has a chill of 400 hrs. All my lower chill peach trees are in their second growing season but they should have as good of flavor as La Feliciana. Florida King has been rated as fair to poor quality. I have stayed away from it for that reason. Arctic Star nectarine has been blooming for about a week if you want to try nectarine. I planted one last year and it grew very well. You will also want to look at harvest dates to make sure they don't all come off at the same time. I have also planted a tropic snow and tropic beauty peach tree in 15 gallon pots that i can move if it gets cold. I hope they will last for about 5 years before they become root bound. They have a chill hour of 150 to 200 hours.