No photos unfortunately, but Royal Lee is currently in full bloom at my parents’ in Palos Verdes. Interestingly, the small Cristobalina I planted a few years ago is also in full bloom, although it looks like it started a few days after Royal Lee. The Minnie Royal I planted died a few years back so I’m hoping Cristobalina can act as a pollenizer for Royal Lee.
Next wave of low to moderate chill cherries in bloom:
Brooks graft above, Coral below. Brooks is high flavor and produces well here in inland San Diego. A few years back Dave Wilson released this to home growers thanks to Gary Matsuoka at Laguna Hills nursery. Coral is a well-timed pollinizer, its bloom overlap is always fantastic. Keep in mind though that with S1S3, Coral is no different from Royal Lee, which has a very extended bloom and tastes better. Coral can be great, but it can also have an earthy aftertaste.
On Gisela 12 rootstock. I was excited about it because it is precocious and productive. It is a weak rootstock though. This tree is leaning over. It is a fun rootstock when you start out but Maxma is better.
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Black Pearl blooms well with Brooks and Coral. Its S4/S13 alleles make it a great pollinizer, especially with it being early to bloom. The first ones I had were amazing but they were just good after that.
If I were starting over, I would buy Coral, Black Pearl and Brooks. and then top work the first 2 to Brooks, leaving enough flowers for pollination. Brooks is a high flavor amazing cherry. It was my favorite cherry at farmers markets for many years.
There are undoubtedly more cherries that will produce well here but it takes time to figure it out. If anyone in inland So Cal wants to experiment, buy a tree known to do well here with diverse S alleles, and then graft in all your test grafts. Brooks is a good choice.
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Noticed that my Flavor King limb is at about 90% now.
And my Snow Queen Nectarine is starting to open some buds and popcorn. Finally!
Moorpark looking better than the average year. It must like the avoidance of heat. This winter was not hot at all, despite not being cold either (temps from 40-65 most of the entire winter).
Alameda Hemskirke would have been a better choice for me but I am happy with 12-40 fruit a year (full crop last year but that was an exception)
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James, I too would be fine with a smaller crop of Moorpark. I’m here near Venice Beach…what area did you grow Moorpark
Inland. I wouldn’t try it there if space is limited. Tropic Gold (which really is just Blenheim) might be a safer bet and you can graft in. Alameda Hemskirke is related to Moorpark but suspected to be more productive. Good luck!
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The fruit set this year is pretty high. I put cherries all over my yard and diversified S alleles of pollinizers and put a lot of effort into year round flowers with native plants as much as I could.
The bees delivered!
Minnie Royal on Mama 14 in a sunnier part of the yard.
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Top disappointments in So Cal fruit for me, 2024:
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Lapins cherry. Reputedly low chill, it blooms pretty late for me and never sets much fruit. It is not as good as Bing. I think it is just self-fertile and therefore looks low chill to some. In my opinion it isn’t, and is not worth trying in inland Southern California.
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Royal Rainier cherry. Don’t get me wrong, it is good. It just blooms late and has not fruited much for me. I had a lot of test grafts too. You may be able to get some fruit, and I have had a few. Royal Rainier at its best is basically not a yellow cherry, but bright red. Left on the tree long enough to turn that color, it is really sweet, and very special. My son loved it when he was 4 and I am keeping it for his sake for now but I snuck in a Black Eagle graft at the base for future replacement. Royal Rainier might be a great backyard tree elsewhere but don’t waste your real estate on it in inland San Diego. It is not 400-500 chill hours, at least not San Diego chill hours. If anyone disagrees, please share how you got it to work.
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Low quality “low chill apricots.” Start with Tropic Gold/Blenheim. I just don’t see anyone growing Blenheim and then saying “I changed my mind, I would rather have Katy… or Gold Kist… or Royal Rosa.” As others have said on this forum, if you summer prune Blenheim, it will fruit well inland (and I have heard coastal also). If you want lower chill, grow Nicole apricot. It fruits abundantly with a pollinizer nearby (Blenheim overlaps every year). Nursery apricot offerings are a missed opportunity here, though to their credit they almost all do carry Blenheim.
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Extremely early or late flowering plums and pluots. There might be a way for that to work, but I am giving up and sticking to Flavor King and its mid-season pollinizers. Blooming with Flavor King right now are Nadia, Sugar Twist, Sweet Treat, Flavor Grenade, Dapple Dandy… and Santa Rosa and Laroda would if I still had them. Candy Heart blooms too early. Flavor Punch mostly blooms too late, though I have had some fruit every year, and they are actually quite good.
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Almost every tart cherry rootstock I have tried so far. Krymsk has a 100% failure rate after 2-4 years. Mahalab has not been as successful for me as I had hoped. Mazzard worked okay so far but it is slow here. I might try Maxma 14. Krymsk as an interstem to a sweet cherry, then to a tart might work also.
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Geneva rootstocks for apples. Credit to the developers for great rootstocks in general but in Southern California, the more vigorous, the better. M111 is very productive for me. B118 produces so much fruit on a goldrush graft it leans the tree to that side, if it doesn’t break the branches. And I am hoping Antonovka does well. But everything dwarfing disappoints. This principle applies for almost all stone fruit also. All my apricots are now on seedlings I grew in my own yard and they are much more vigorous, healthy, and productive.
Here is Lapins with scattered late bloom. The base are grafts of Brooks that I hope survive to take over the tree. After it is Black Pearl, same rootstock, planted the same year, same location.
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Sweetheart cherry is blooming now and leafing out. This is its first year after last year’s planting so it is too early to tell. Note: sometimes aggressively pruning will induce flower bloom proximal to the cut. So grain of salt here. But the bud break otherwise looks even to me.
Lower fruitset in general on most of my apricots this wet year. Was it chill? Or was it rain? Or was it alternate bearing from a heavier crop last year?
It seems to correlate with alternate bearing for me, but I can not help but feeling like weather has something to do with it also.
It was not chill - I have lots of grafts. Nicole has very low set on one tree this year but is loaded on another tree, despite the same chill. Same thing with Blenheim.
Timing of rain seemed to matter also. A tree producing lightly will have a graft bloom at another time that is nonetheless setting heavily. So it isn’t ALL explained by alternate bearing.
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Wind? I feel like we had a bad wind event here in SoCal right when my Anna Apple was at 100% bloom. And so was the Flavor Queen Pluot. I’m seeing some fruit set on both but not what I was expecting based on the bloom.
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Looks like complete drop on apricots this year for me. Below 20º last weekend was it.
Snacktime from Burchell nursery is probably low chill. Bloomed early and produced well. I thinned it.
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Peacot produced well everywhere it was grafted last year. The flavor is really good at Andy’s Orchard and this deserves to be sold in niche nurseries.
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Gold Dust seems to produce well. I do not doubt it is higher chill but in 400 chill hour locations it does fine so far. Amazing flavor. I like it more than typical offerings of that season.
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Indian Free finally blooming. Rather late (mid-April). Not a perfect match for this climate. June Pride also blooms very late, this year is its worst ever. I have had crops on both before but they are not climate adapted.
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Moorpark for some reason cropping better on a proximal branch. On a bad apricot year due to rain, its delayed bloom allowed a better crop? Surprising to get so much fruit this year. It was not as cold. But we avoided the hot days. I think Moorpark likes avoidance of 85 degree December and January days.
This tree was grafted on apricot seedling. It is a healthy tree. If chill hour pushing, give your tree the strongest most vigorous rootstock you can. Growing your own seedlings is cheap and in my opinion more effective. At least in my yard they produce earlier than citation (maybe because they reach full size very fast).
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This is how Moorpark is in inland Southern California (every year). It bloomed a month ago (see fruit). But it also has not bloomed yet! (see bud). Typically the early bloom fruits better than the late bloom.
The whole tree looks like a sparse bloom and I am grateful the bees still visit it.
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