Chilling Hours in Southern California - Not Abnormal

[behlgarden]

If I am reading the data right, you can pretty much look into Los Angeles or Riverside County and find out that we are actually having better chilling this year vs past years. yes, we did not get snow or extreme cold conditions, but it appears that we got more hours between 32 and 45 than past. its good for most tropical fruits that need chilling.

Check it out here http://fruitsandnuts.ucdavis.edu/chillcalc/index.cfm#R

Thoughts?

[nullzero]

If I am reading the data right, you can pretty much look into Los Angeles or Riverside County and find out that we are actually having better chilling this year vs past years. yes, we did not get snow or extreme cold conditions, but it appears that we got more hours between 32 and 45 than past. its good for most tropical fruits that need chilling.

Check it out here http://fruitsandnuts.ucdavis.edu/chillcalc/index.cfm#R

Thoughts?

Interesting, maybe the Pixwell Gooseberries will be more productive this year. This winter has been weird so far. Looks like the worst of the cold is behind us. I am looking forward to perhaps a nice warm summer (wishing for just a little more humidity, and perhaps some rain!).

[simon_grow]

I believe there are different formulas for calculating chill hours.  One of the formulas deducts chill hours for every hour over a certain temp. 

I've noticed many of the trees are blooming earlier this year(not necessarily fruit trees) which makes me think that the trees might have felt we got fewer chill hours, not sure but the weather has been really strange!
Simon

[behlgarden]

We are in 2012, who knows whats in the pike! Anyway, I see flowers all over on my Asian Pear tree

[fruitlovers]

we did not get snow or extreme cold conditions, but it appears that we got more hours between 32 and 45 than past. its good for most tropical fruits that need chilling.
Thoughts?

Tropical fruits never need chilling by definition. Only temperate fruits and a few sub tropical fruits need some chill. BTW, i've noticed that chill hour rating for plants is often way off. For example, i grow Anna apple here where we have zero chill. But Anna is usually rated 100-200 chill hours. So you need to experiment a bit. Don't completely trust those numbers.
Oscar