Thanks, I’ll look into those.
400 chill hours in California is a far cry from 400 chill hours in the Gulf Coast. Join the Texas Fruiting Plant group on Facebook. Growing cherries on Gulf Coast has been discussed many times. No one got any cherries and trees died in the summer heat.
" I’ve grown and fruited the bush cherries Jan, JOEL, and Joy. About 15-20 years ago.
They are hybrids were developed by Dr. Meador in New Hampshire.
Fruit quality is poor, like a bad pie cherry. I ripped mine out.
Tried all the low chill cherries over the years. None bore fruit.
Grew Katy ; Goldkist Apricot and maybe two fruits a year. Ripped them out.
Matagorda County, coastal Texas zone 9."
“Trialed Minnie Royal and Royal Lee for 4 years…they looked great every spring, suffered every summer and went dormant early every fall. The most cherries ever produced was 6. They simply can not take the heat and humidity of the Houston area. They do better with the heat if there’s little to no humidity”
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I’m also in 8b North Central FL. It’s a bit of a zone push but you may want to check out Cherry of the Rio Grande, Eugenia involucrata and Barbados Cherry, Malpighia ******** if you haven’t already. I’m thinking we are just a bit too cold for either but with a little protection on the coldest nights they may work. Good luck!
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Thanks, have you heard of anyone growing avocado in your area? Thought I could dwarf one in a winter green house but just started looking into it.
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I’m growing cherry of the rio grande. Nice ornamental. In 7 years got only a hand full of “cherries.” As cold hardy as citrus. Grew a while back as well. Not enough fruit to worry about.
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I think you would struggle with cherries. You also need to think about spraying and protecting the crop from birds. For sweet cherries you will need to spray for brown rot with a fungicide like Captan or Indar. Insects will attack the fruit so you will need an insecticide mixed in with the fungicide as well.
Tart cherries are easier and have much less trouble with brown rot. In some cases you may be able to get away with no spraying or very limited spraying. But I think in your conditions tart cherries would require some spraying for insects and cherry leaf spot.
Birds love cherries. In most cases you will need to use bird scare tape or net the tree ( nets are better but more costly and more work). You probably should look at some of the threads dealing with growing cherries under Eastern conditions. They talk in depth about the problems you will face. Here is a link to one of them.
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I have had about the same luck with cherry of the rio grande. But a handful of fruit is more fruit than you would have had if you planted a low chill cherry. And the taste was actually good. I still have not given up. It took 4 to 5 years before it produced anything, and my hand full of fruit came this year. So maybe I will get that amount each year.
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@figerama I do know a guy closer to you than me that grows cold hardy avocado. I don’t like them so haven’t tried. It’s possible but I think you would want to get the right variety and still may need some coddling on the coldest nights. But it’s definitely doable.
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I’m just north of Gainesville, FL in 8B but not on the coast. You can measure your chill hours here:
http://agroclimate.org/tools/Chill-Hours-Calculator/
I put in a Lapins Cherry and a Royale Crimson last year. They will be three this year. I messed up the transplant on my Royal Crimson and lost half the roots. It suffered, I nursed it back, and then canker got it. Burned out the canker will see if it lives long enough to give me some fruit.
My Lapins also suffered transplant shock for about two weeks. But has grown great every since. In my area we will just go over about 400 chill hours so I’m definitely pushing it. Hoping every now and then we get an extra cold winter.
From what I’ve read these low chill cherries have three problems. First the high humidity hurts pollination. Second you must spray (but that is true even for peach trees) for fungus. Third you have to get the chill. Pollination is the biggest obstacle because the humidity makes it harder. And Bees tend to go to other flowers before the cherry.
Now I will say this. We also put in a Barbados Cherry. Got a lot of Cherries first year in ground. Grows very well. Tastes isn’t really good. But it blooms for like 9 months so it was a good bee attractor. Well something was pollinating them. Problem is we lost it during the first short freeze of the year. I’m talking only maybe and hour or two at 32 degrees. You won’t be able to grow a Barbados except in a pot in zone 8b or up. And the fruit isn’t worth it. Three seeds, uggh.
Back to my sweet cherries. I planted mine in full sun. And yea they don’t like the heat at peak of summer either. Leaves wilt like every day. Though the trees as they got stronger seemed to endure it better. The lapins was doing very well. Also the June Bugs were a huge problem. They loved the leaves. So you have to deal with those as well.
Fungus started to set in. Captan worked well to control it. I’m going to rotate Captan and Chorlliphil something and spray every two weeks. If you grow peach trees you can deal with the cherry fungus issues as well. Pretty much the same.
In your zone as long as you are far enough away from the coast you should get the chill hours. I have hope of getting cherries but everything I’ve read says it probably won’t work. But I do baby my trees.
The other thing I’ve read is not to give Nitrogen to cherry trees. Too much nitrogen and they won’t fruit. I think A LOT of people make this mistake. I’m only going to do seaweed and kelp so that there isn’t much nitrogen given. I do keep the area around the tree mulched. And I dunno when I painted the trunks white the trees seemed to respond pretty well to that. Will probably add another coat this year. It really does help keep them a bit cooler.
Sucks that the lowest of my low chill got damaged so bad. I will probably add another Royal Crimson or add one of each of the Minnie and Royal so that I have good pollination potential. I also have one son that doesn’t mind hand pollinating. Only time will tell.
But if I can’t get them to fruit probably no one will. Put a lot into them so far.
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For sour cherries I"m looking into this
Seems like this could grow about anywhere. Not sure how it compares to what we usually think of as a sour or tart cherry here in America. But this is the most interesting thing I"ve found so far in terms of a viable southern sour cherry. I just want a pie cherry.
I will keep you guys posted on my low chill cherry results from North FL. I’m at the southern edge of 8b in the Alachua area. We’ve had about 193 hours between 32 and 45 degrees F so far. So I should hit the minimum chill requirment of 200 and 400 hours. We will see. I figure if I get a few cherries this year it will only get better once the trees get bigger with more blooms.
Also when you water your trees do not spray them with water on their leaves. This will help pollination chances and minimize fungus.
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Thanks so much for your input, please keep me posted, good luck. And I love me some cherry pies as well.
Persia (Iran) and California both have Mediterranean type climates very different than Florida. When you look at Mediterranean fruits like morus migra, pomegranates, apricots and figs you never hear good reports about their performance in the humid south except for certain figs.
It kills me that people come on here where the nice lady clearly asks about growing cherry in North FLORIDA 8b <----- and they tell what won’t grow in Texas or what will grow in California… I live in 8b (blountstown) have property in Chipley and Woodville as well. I would love to grow cherries I ate them at a neighbor’s house in Arkansas as a kid. I have tried black Tartarian and lapin as a novice arborist a couple years ago and they died. I blame myself, despite having much better luck with other fruit trees. I have FUYU (na) persimmons, I have kumquats, date palms, figs, granny smith apples, Anna apples, Florida king peaches (which i have never gotten to produce) several types of blueberries, banana trees, pomegranate, Meyer Lemon, Satsumas, and a few grape varieties (some that i was told won’t grow here). I was considering trying cherries here again, I did a lot of research and had heard that if you plant them on a mound of soil on top of the ground you may be able to get them to grow and produce here and be happy. I was going to make a big mound of the type of soil they prefer and plant them on this amended soil on top of the sandy soil that I have in my Chipley location in one of the higher elevation parts of Washington county If I am able to afford it this year. If there are others in 8b FLORIDA who are actually planting I would be interested in hearing their process of planting and their results. I will share mine as I go, I just found this site and signed up for this post.
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Thanks for the reply, I have a bunch of plants coming this month in the mail, 11 different blackberries, 11 different muscadine, 10 different blueberries, 17 different raspberries, 2 olives, 2 pomegranates, 2 pears , 2 plums, 2 mulberries, apple and 4 different avocados. I was also told not to plant table grapes so I went with muscadines but I’m going to try 2 table grades I just bought from Wal-mart. I was also told not to grow raspberries but I’m going to try anyway maybe out of the 17 different types I will get a couple types to fruit. I was also told not to grow avocadoes but what the heck why not try. I’ll go out this spring and buy some kumquats, fig, satsumas, persimmons and any others the locals recommend.
I canceled the Royal Crimson Cherry and decided not to grow peaches since they might take more work to keep alive then I willing to give them, I can live without them.
I know without a picture it hard to tell but, I’m A Dude.
Forget cherries along the Gulf Coast. Won’t get any fruit. Tree may survive the hot summers but not likely. No one has gotten any cherries here near Houston.
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I’m trialing Montmorency in the chilly microclimate of my yard. I’m in zone 8a South Carolina, so tons of humidity, hurricanes and disease pressures. I don’t hold much hope, but you never know unless you try. If my tree ups and dies, I was considering replacing it with a cornelian cherry (actually a kind of dogwood) or a serviceberry.
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That’s my thinking you never truly know unless you try, I’m planting anything relatively close to my chill hours to see how the plant does in the humidity and heat. Far as the avocados go I don’t know why putting Christmas lights around them or plastic during the winter won’t protect them until they get to a mature size. And who doesn’t like looking at Christmas lights my neighbors might think I’m crazy but that’s never stopped me before.
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Sorry if this is straying off topic, but what avocado varieties are you thinking? My mother lives near you and she got a couple own-rooted Del Rio plants from Craig Hepworth in Citra, though she’s kept them indoors this winter and plans to plant them out in the spring, so can’t give any tips about what protection works best for young trees in that area.
Edit; nevermind, just remembered we already had this conversation in another thread. Old man brain already!
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Del Rio is a good one I plan on going Central Florida in a month to pick up some of the Mexican varieties what he has will really depend on what I buy
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So a quick word on peaches than an update on my cherries.
Peaches grow fantastic in zone 8b in Florida. I planted what was probably a one year old tree last year. Its now huge and I’m going to have a bunch of peaches this year. This is my second peach. My first at our previous house had to be put down after about six years. I never sprayed it properly, etc… But this time I have been spraying properly and so far no problems. All I will say is that if you fertilize with Citrus Fertilizer spikes and water once a week they will grow like crazy. If you want something that is a sure bet get a low chill peach variety. I plan on planting some more next year.
I also have what is now a three year old Anna and some kind of wild apple tree. Both have apples this year and have grown well. Regarding fruit trees in Florida. Except for Citrus everything in Florida needs to be sprayed so it just comes with the territory. Right now I’m rotating D747 (double nickel), Captan, and Daconil. I don’t spray when trees are blooming and follow instructions on labels.
UPDATE on Cherries.
Lapins: My lapins finally has woken up. No flowers just leafing out. It is only three years old now so I may have to wait another year or two.
Royal Crimson: Woke up about two to three weeks before the lapins. Same thing though. No flowers but again it is only three.
On a whim I went back to the nursery (a tad south of me) in Gainesville where I bought them. She still has a bunch of lapins, Royal Crimsons, Minnie Royales, and Royal Lees. I was able to find some of each type that had flowered, and maybe one of them had a cherry about to grow. I suspect her trees are between 2 to 3 years old as well. All of them are potted, and basically in the middle of the woods (not much light). But this probably means they get a bit more chill hours since the shade will extend the colder temperatures every day another hour or two. I did see a few lapins that have yet to wake up and might be dead. The Royal Lees looked to have been the ones that woke up first and also the ones that were more likely to blossom. With all the trees she had I would have expected better pollination. But again the trees are young and I don’t know that she got many blooms. I could only see the ones open today when I went. But in general it appears we are getting enough chill hours here to survive. And all those trees in pots still probably means they can’t grow optimally. Lets put it this way. Mine are much bigger than the ones left in pots in her forest.
I also planted a Celeste Fig last year and it is growing well this year so far. Not going to let any Figs grown on it though cause it didn’t grow much last year. It is tiny.
I dormant transplanted out of pots three pear trees. (20th Century, Shinko, and another Asian Pear). Two appear to be waking up buy boy it is slow slow. Just a hint of green. The 20th century hasn’t shown any real sign of life yet.
At the same time I transplanted the Pears I also transplanted a Flavor Delight Aprium. This tree has now leafed out and I did get one bloom. I have no pollinator at this time so no hope on that one. That is a 300 chill tree though so that is a good sign. Flavor Delight supposedly is one of the harder trees to grow. So it it takes to the soil and climate than that would be a good sign for other low chill fruit varieties.
According to AgroClimate which undercounts our chill hours we got 526 chill hours below 45 and 460 chill hours between 32 and 45. Again I know this undercounts because there would every now and then be a day where the hours didn’t go up on the calculator when I know we would have like say 6-8 chill hours over night. So its a slight undercount.
My concern on the lapins would be what happens if we had an unusually warm winter. I would not suggest anything over a 400 hour chill requirement tree for the Gainesville | Alachua | High Springs area.
I do think the Royal Lee and the Minnie Royale and the Royal Crimson are the best bet for zone 8b. I will also say this. With proper spraying diseases can be controlled on these trees. The bigger question is will they pollinate in the higher humidity. The last two years we haven’t gotten a lot of rain on any of the trees while they were blooming. High humidity just hit us the last two weeks but again not a lot of actual rain. Everything else (the apples, peaches, Satsumas, and Lemons have pollinated just fine. So I’m betting they will pollinate.
If anyone is considering planting one of these cherries I highly recommend planting them in partial sun not full sun. I noticed that last summer the leaves would droop daily from say noon to 5PM cause of the heat. As soon as they got some shade the leaves would perk up. So if you can plant in a spot that starts getting some shade around 1 PM I think the trees will feel much better and they will still get plenty of sun to ripen a cherry. Also I’m not going to prune to open up the center all that much. Again the canopy of the tree I would prefer to be thick so it can deal with the heat better as they mature.
So that is my two cents. Only time will tell if the cherries take. Remember too I had some transplant shock last year and still I got a lot of growth. With the transplant behind us and a better spraying program now in place it will be interesting to see what they will do next spring. Sadly that is a year away. But I would think by year four I would be getting a good batch of blooms.
I’m also excited about the two Owari Satsuma’s. I still have to transplant them but this is probably the only reliable citrus that can handle the winters here. So I’m excited to see what they will do.
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