Author Topic: Low chill apple trees  (Read 2753 times)

koundog

  • Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 32
    • U.S FL,Vero Beach 10a
    • View Profile
Low chill apple trees
« on: March 04, 2018, 06:25:37 PM »
Has anyone grown and fruited low chill apple varieties in south Florida I’m interested in maybe planting the Anna and golden Dorsett varieties in my yard am I wasting my time with these?

Tropheus76

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 923
    • East Orlando 9B
    • View Profile
Re: Low chill apple trees
« Reply #1 on: March 05, 2018, 08:02:27 AM »
I am in Northern Central FL in between Orlando and Cocoa and I have both and while I get a couple apples from each, apples are easily one of the slowest growing group of trees I have. Dorsett I believe comes from Jamaica(or maybe its Anna) and should eeek along like mine does. But don't expect anything great or massive. I am curious as to how this past winter's cold will improve things.

Two others you may want to check out that have been more productive than Anna and Dorsett for me are Tropic Sweet and Emshimer. Both are slightly more vigourous and have gotten more apples off them in three years than I have gotten off my A and Ds combined in 6.

Jct

  • Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 138
  • Zone 10b
    • San Diego
    • View Profile
Re: Low chill apple trees
« Reply #2 on: March 19, 2018, 03:44:01 PM »
There's a whole thread on this:

http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=18476.0

Gala and Pixie Crunch have done well from me, but my conditions are a bit different from yours.
LaVerne Manila Mango; Pixie Crunch, Honeycrisp & Gala Apple Trees; Violette De Bordeaux & Black Mission Fig; Santa Rosa Plum & Snow Queen Nectarine; Nagami Kumquat, Pixie Tangerine, Lemon, Australian Finger Lime & Washington Navel Citrus; White & Red Dragon Fruit; Miracle Berry Plant

scottsurf

  • Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 48
    • san diego
    • View Profile
Re: Low chill apple trees
« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2018, 04:15:11 PM »
in different climate but get little chill the only problem i have is  they are constanly flowering at any tempature change. like rigth now i have ripe apples on the tree and its flowering to. so have to pick baby fruit for it to grow but sets heavy crop .when mature. sometime hard for it to grow instead of fruit

Jct

  • Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 138
  • Zone 10b
    • San Diego
    • View Profile
Re: Low chill apple trees
« Reply #4 on: March 29, 2018, 01:04:58 PM »
in different climate but get little chill the only problem i have is  they are constanly flowering at any tempature change. like rigth now i have ripe apples on the tree and its flowering to. so have to pick baby fruit for it to grow but sets heavy crop .when mature. sometime hard for it to grow instead of fruit
I've had that issue with my Pixie Crunch, last year it underwent a 2 month period of constant flowering, leading to a very long fruiting season.  It was nice that I had apples ripen over a fairly long period, but it made it tougher figuring out which ones were actually ripe.  It's still a young tree, so I only had about a dozen apples. Hoping for much more this year.
LaVerne Manila Mango; Pixie Crunch, Honeycrisp & Gala Apple Trees; Violette De Bordeaux & Black Mission Fig; Santa Rosa Plum & Snow Queen Nectarine; Nagami Kumquat, Pixie Tangerine, Lemon, Australian Finger Lime & Washington Navel Citrus; White & Red Dragon Fruit; Miracle Berry Plant

SoCal2warm

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1554
    • zone 10 and zone 8a
    • View Profile
Re: Low chill apple trees
« Reply #5 on: April 06, 2018, 08:30:40 PM »
In SoCal, climate zone 10, and even peach trees that you'll occasionally see in people's yards (Babcock, I'm assuming) don't seem to produce well here. I've only ever come across one apple tree with fruits, and they were very little apples.

But I did find this:

The latest reports have shown that apples tend to be more adaptable to lower-chill areas than was previously thought. A field test by Tom Spellman of Dave Wilson Nursery showed that several apple varieties rated for 800 chill hours could grow just fine in Irvine (located in coastal Southern California, which only gets 50-100 real chill hours). The following apple varieties did surprisingly well: King Tompkins, Braeburn, Gravenstein, Cox's Orange Pippin. The trees tended to flower and set fruit throughout the year rather than a specific season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiEEHRfAEWY

The results might have had something to do with the fact that the coastal influence has a moderating effect on temperature, and in the winter it rarely ever gets above 65 F in this region, higher temperatures being very detrimental to effective chill accumulation. In other words, the same moderating influence that prevents there from ever being any chill hours below 45 F may be, paradoxically, the same influence that allows the trees to grow well even in the absence of chill hours below 45 F.
« Last Edit: April 06, 2018, 08:34:34 PM by SoCal2warm »