For Abundant Bare-Root Fruit Trees, Just Chill

This is the season to buy and plant deciduous fruit trees like apples and apricots, when they’re available bare-root.

While the young trees are dormant, they’re briefly sold without soil or container--and at bargain prices--in late December, January and early February.

It’s said to be the best time, and way, to plant them.

If you need additional reasons to be out shopping for fruit trees at this cold and dark time of year, think back to those tasteless apricots you bought at the market last summer. Maybe you think apricots are supposed to taste that way, but take it from someone who grew up in an apricot orchard. They’re not.

Only apples, pears and the occasional premium peach are sold when close to ripe, and they taste a whole lot sweeter when they come from your backyard.

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The difference between home-grown fruit and store-bought is like comparing apples to oranges. Which brings up an interesting point. While we can definitely grow oranges, we can only grow certain varieties of apples and other deciduous fruits.

When you’re out shopping for fruit trees, it’s extremely important to know which varieties do well here and which don’t, or you’ll end up planting a tree that seldom bears fruit.

Despite the cold nights we’ve been experiencing, much of Southern California simply doesn’t get cold enough in most years to grow many varieties of deciduous fruits, such as Red Delicious apples or Elberta peaches. Even most apricots are marginal, as the many gardeners with fruitless trees in their backyards can tell you.

It takes a certain amount of cold to trigger buds. If they don’t get cold enough, fruit buds won’t open and make fruit; leaf buds may open erratically and late in the season.

It has to do with something called “chilling.” Each specific fruit requires so many hours of chilling, defined as hours of temperatures below 45 degrees.

While Red Delicious apples need about 700 hours of chilling and Elberta peaches need around 800, Santa Monica has only accumulated a pathetic 41 hours of chilling this winter. Glendale has about 195 and Pomona has 265.

Up north in prime deciduous fruit-growing country, Morgan Hill in the Santa Clara Valley already has 457 hours, and Parlier in the Central Valley has 656 hours.

Down here, we don’t get enough winter chilling to grow many varieties of fruit trees, and the closer to the coast you live, the less you get. Only the high desert gets any serious chilling, which explains why high-desert towns have names like Apple Valley and Pearblossom.

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On the Web, you can find out exactly how much chilling has occurred in your general area. Go to https://fruitsandnuts.ucdavis.edu and choose the selection Pomology Weather Services.

This is a new service using information provided by the state’s Department of Water Resources automated weather sites. There are 33 sites in Southern California.

You won’t find season totals, just what has occurred up to today, but the Department of Water Resources thoughtfully crunched some numbers in its computer and gave me a few totals from last year.

Last winter (admittedly, a mild one), coastal Santa Monica got only 24 hours of chilling. Glendale fared better, getting 337 and Pomona squeezed out 556 hours.

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Local topography can affect these figures. Cold air flows downhill, so canyon bottoms, low-lying areas and towns at the foot of mountains get more than hillsides and mesas.

I’ve been told there used to be a pear orchard at the bottom of Laguna Canyon, even though it was practically on the beach. If the story is true, enough cold air apparently funneled out of the canyon’s mouth to provide adequate chilling.

But, in general, those living in coastal areas are lucky to get between 100 and 200 hours of chilling during a cold winter, while inland areas may get between 500 and 600.

This means you had better choose deciduous fruit tree varieties that require less chilling, such as Anna apples or Tropic Snow peaches, which require only 200 hours of chilling. These are known as low-chill varieties.

A few nurseries list the chilling hours on their labels, such as Burkards in Pasadena, which probably carries the largest stock of bare-root fruit trees in the Southland, but many don’t list this information.

Do your homework before you shop. Try https://www.BayLaurelNursery.com on the Web, which is a mail-order nursery in Atascadero specializing in deciduous fruit trees. Its Web page has a list of low-chill fruit varieties. You can also write for its catalog, which includes the list. (Bay Laurel Nursery, 2500 El Camino Real, Atascadero, CA 93422. The phone number is [805] 466-3406.)

Several other factors can influence chilling, according to San Diego farm advisor Vincent Lazaneo. Damp fog near the beach can increase the effect of what little chilling beach cities get.

On the other hand, if days are in the 70s or higher, that can undo the effects of the previous night’s cold. This often happens when warm Santa Ana days follow cold nights.

The warmth radiating from paving and houses can also make backyards less chilly at night, so plant trees away from both.

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According to Lazaneo, you can do a few things to make sure deciduous fruit trees are getting as much chilling as possible. Keep the ground under the tree mulched, so heat doesn’t radiate. Don’t let the soil get really dry. Damp soils exaggerate the cold. Using a dormant oil spray to smother over-wintering pests also helps buds break dormancy.

But the most important thing is to plant a fruit tree that needs the least amount of chilling possible.