Greetings,
I am curious why part of my apple trees would be leafing out and blooming while the top are still dormant…just starting to bud out??? I live on the coast of central california.
thanks in advance!!!
Steve
Steve,
My apple trees are doing the same thing down here in SD. Blossoms and buds are starting low and gradually working their way up the tree. I have one (Honeycrisp) that hasn’t even done that. Last year it didn’t wake up until July. Growth on it was very marginal last year, but the other two did very well.
I had a plum tree do the same thing, blossoms started low and it took a week or two for the entire tree to bloom.
Give it time!
Jason
@LowChill, don’t have an answer for you but I’ve seen the same on some of my apple trees as well. One is a Dorsett and the other is a Gala.
Lowchill I think your handle says it all. Lack of chilling is the likely answer. But I should ask do you think your chilling was low this yr? I know that can be hard to answer. With all the rain, you may have had lots of 50s kind of weather.
We had a fair amount of temps in the 40’s, but I don’t keep track of my chilling hours. It may be a good idea though! Do they make an ap for that:)
So with low chilling hours some parts of the tree will just lag behind others in leafing out? I mean the bottom half of the tree is already blooming with a few already setting! While the upper half has zero growth or is just starting to bud!
I was thinking maybe it wasn’t getting enough water???
thanks!!!
Yes there is. Lots here use getchill. But it’s only as good as the weather records of nearby stations.
Maybe someone can post a link if needed. I’ve given up worrying about chilling and just going with the flow.
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Typical behavior for lack of chill. Nothing wrong with it, the tree will leaf out fully and continue to grow once it wakes up. This behavior has several advantages, not the least being your harvest season is strung out giving you more time to enjoy the fruit.
Oddly enough in the tropics the blossom period can be more compact, despite having no chill at all.
This is the website Fruitnut is referring to:
http://getchill.net/
You do need to find out the weather station IDs closest to you. From my experience, some of the weather station data is completely inaccurate. You might want to check the records of various close by stations to determine which one to use.
LowChill,
As you are in California, UC Davis tracks this throughout the state:
I’m in SD and only had ~131 hours.
Same thing going on here in southern NJ. My granny smith is leafing out from the bottom up. Overall we have had a very warm winter.