Can you all believe this? This is INSANE! This is a pluot that bloomed in LATE MARCH last year!!! This is February 14 and this thing is almost in full bloom! It had major bud swell (you could see the white) on January 31!!! Where I live on the TN/KY border, it is a virtual certainty that we will have freezing temps several times over the next 2 months, so its highly doubtful I’ll get any fruit from this tree this year. Many of my other trees are also showing major bud swell and are way, way ahead of schedule. Very strange weather, indeed.
BTW…this situation makes me question the whole “chill hour” concept. We had incredibly warm weather all the way up until Christmas- we barely got below 50 degrees, which is very strange. Same thing has been true ever since New Years- most days have been remarkably warm. So, on a common sense level, I can understand how a tree might “think” this warm weather signifies a spring warming. But we all know that supposedly a tree “knows” when to bloom based on whether or not it has experienced a certain number of “chill days” (hours, actually). Under that theory, it makes no sense that in a year where we have had almost all warm days the trees would bloom early. To the contrary. If the accumulation of chill hours is what triggers blooms/end of dormancy, then years like this where we have had very few cold days (ie very few chill hours) then shouldn’t the trees be blooming LATER than usual instead of earlier? Shouldn’t’ they still be waiting for the accumulation of the magic number of chill days/hours? But the reality in my orchard is that in a year when we have had a shockingly low number of chill hours/chill days (very few days below 45 or so degrees), my trees are all breaking dormancy earlier than ever.
Don’t get me wrong- I know I- an inexperienced grower- am not going to dispell established scientific theory/establishment with one year of strange weather, but it is curious observation that I’d enjoy seeing discussed/answered.
