We get some unusual bloom conditions here in SoCal (especially for those like me who like to push the envelope on chill hours), but this year has been the strangest yet. We had a very warm winter here (many 80+ degree days) and by late February, many of the trees, especially the lower chill trees had given up and bloomed on last year’s schedule (like Candy Heart below).
And then our version of winter hit in early March and continued throughout the month. Some trees like Candy Heart, Dorsett Golden Apple, Anna apple, Weeping Santa Rosa and Desert Delight finished off their bloom and began pushing leaves, but others stopped after putting out 5-10 blooms per tree. These included Burgundy Plum, Sweet Treat Pluerry, Royal Lee Cherry, Santa Rosa Plum and others. Many of those blooms set fruit and left the trees with the odd mix of having a small amount of fruit set with most of the tree still asleep. Assuming the rest of the trees start to bloom in the next couple of weeks, it’s going to be an incredibly prolonged harvest this year. Fingers crossed that plays out! So interesting to watch the orchard develop year after year in different conditions.
Fruitlets on Sweet Treat Pluerry (with Spicezee in the back)…
on Burgundy Plum…
on a different Burgundy Plum in Espalier form – you can see the fruitlets on the lower right (this is the only Burgundy branch on this tree, which started as a Snow Queen Nectarine…
Flavor King in Espalier form set on one of the arms, with the rest to follow. Would love to have an extended harvest on this one…
Bring on Spring!