Q. I am in the process of ordering a couple fruit trees online. What are the chill hours for Sun City Anthem in Henderson? I thought it was 300 hours or less. A couple of apricot trees you have recommended have been 400 and 500 hours (Blenheim and Royal Rosa) and I am wondering if that is too many chill hours of my area.
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| Apricots grown at the UNCE Orchard |
A. Chill hours are the number of hours at low temperatures during our winters so that the tree “recognizes” that winter has arrived. It can be important in commercial production but in home orchards it seems to be less important on some types of fruit trees.
On peaches and apricots in particular we have not seen a big impact from a lack of chill hours in our area. We have varieties in the 800 to 900 hour range that have done well.
I would be most concerned with how the fruit develops in our climate. The recommendations on my list have all proven themselves for a decade at the orchard. I do not release names of those varieties that have a track record of only a couple of years. They remain under test even if they show extremely good potential.
One variety of peach has been recommended by volunteers at the orchard because of some good qualities in the first year of production. This is way too soon to tell. I prefer at least five years of good production. I hope this helps.