Stone (prunus) Fruit Tree Selection Guidelines To Match Local Weather Conditions
When discussing prunus fruit trees (almonds, apricots, cherries, nectarines, plums, peaches,) there are several climate guidelines to follow for maximum crop yield.
- Select varieties that have a chilling requirement at least 20% less than local averages.
- Selecting a low chill variety in a cold area will result in trees flowering too early and being damaged by late frosts.
- Selecting a high chill variety in warm areas will result in little or no fruit production.
- Early flowering varieties are best in warm climates, late flowering varieties are best in cooler areas.
- Early ripening varieties are best in areas with intense summers, late ripening varieties are best in cooler summers.
- Climate extremes may eliminate certain varieties that would otherwise meet the chilling requirements. For example, the very dry air and intense summer heat as found in Phoenix Arizona may stress a fruit tree beyond its ability to produce quality fruit.
- Terrain can affect the chilling hours received. Open slopes may receive more chilling hours than sheltered areas next to warm buildings.
- Various sellers of fruit trees publish significantly varying chilling hour requirements for the same variety. It is difficult to know the exact requirements. Experiment and ask around for promising local cultivar success stories.
Following the above guidelines here is a practical example. A good apricot for Phoenix Arizona (350 chilling hours) would be Katy apricot with a 200-300 chilling hours requirement. It is early blooming and ripens in May and the tree itself thrives in the intense dry desert heat with adequate regular irrigation. The Katy apricot has no apparent pests or disease problems locally. Planting a Katy apricot only 100 miles north (1000+ chill hours) would likely be fruitless from late frost damage to the flowers. A late ripening apricot variety like Autumn Glo might be a bad choice for Phoenix because the intense long summer heat (115+) might cook the green fruit on the tree and result in strange tastes and other problems with late ripening. The same late ripening variety might also fail in the colder areas 100 mile north because of the shorter summer not allowing enough time to properly ripen before cold weather sets in. A better apricot choice for that colder area might be Goldcot with an 800 chill hour requirement. The late ripening Autumn Glo might be better off in a long cool summer climate along the west coast.
Read more about this topic: Chilling Requirement
Famous quotes containing the words weather, local, match, selection, tree, fruit, stone and/or conditions:
“Every incident connected with the breaking up of the rivers and ponds and the settling of the weather is particularly interesting to us who live in a climate of so great extremes. When the warmer days come, they who dwell near the river hear the ice crack at night with a startling whoop as loud as artillery, as if its icy fetters were rent from end to end, and within a few days see it rapidly going out. So the alligator comes out of the mud with quakings of the earth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Hey, you dress up our town very nicely. You don’t look out the Chamber of Commerce is going to list you in their publicity with the local attractions.”
—Robert M. Fresco, and Jack Arnold. Dr. Matt Hastings (John Agar)
“We cannot expect in the immediate future that all women who seek it will achieve full equality of opportunity. But if women are to start moving towards that goal, we must believe in ourselves or no one else will believe in us; we must match our aspirations with the competence, courage and determination to succeed.”
—Rosalyn Yalow (b. 1921)
“Every writer is necessarily a critic—that is, each sentence is a skeleton accompanied by enormous activity of rejection; and each selection is governed by general principles concerning truth, force, beauty, and so on.... The critic that is in every fabulist is like the iceberg—nine-tenths of him is under water.”
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975)
“The wind had seized the tree and ha, and ha,
It held the shivering, the shaken limbs,
Then bathed its body in the leaping lake.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“If the Americans, in addition to the eagle and the Stars and Stripes and the more unofficial symbols of bison, moose and Indian, should ever need another emblem, one which is friendly and pleasant, then I think they should choose the grapefruit. Or rather the half grapefruit, for this fruit only comes in halves, I believe. Practically speaking, it is always yellow, always just as fresh and well served. And it always comes at the same, still hopeful hour of the morning.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“She took you the way a woman takes
a bargain dress off the rack
and I broke the way a stone breaks.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“What is Americanism? Every one has a different answer. Some people say it is never to submit to the dictation of a King. Others say Americanism is the pride of liberty and the defence of an insult to the flag with their gore. When some half-developed person tramples on that flag, we should be ready to pour out the blood of the nation, they say. But do we not sit in silence when that flag waves over living conditions which should be an insult to all patriotism?”
—Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919)