High chill Vs Low Chill (forum)

Lisa starts with ...
Hi all,

Can anyone explain a little more about high & low chill fruit. I live in an area that has a long (high) chill over winter, if I want to plant a low chill variety of fruit - will it do ok or am I best to stick to ALL high chill fruit trees?

Cheers, Lisa

Time: 5th May 2009 4:54pm

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About the Author Lisa
Blue Mountains NSW
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Julie says...
Hi Lisa. I'm no expert, but I don't think you have to stick to low chill fruits.

I live in a cooler area, where apples,pears etc are grown commercially - these need high chill. But I also grow lemons, oranges, lime, mandarins,cumquat and loquat, which don't need high chill.

It won't work well the other way round - you would find it difficult to grow low chill fruit in a warmer area. So you have it both ways!

Time: 5th May 2009 6:44pm

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Lisa says...
Thanks Julie.

Time: 6th May 2009 8:58am

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About the Author Lisa
Blue Mountains NSW
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Liz says...
Hello - I think you've got muddled writing...

In warm areas you NEED to grow low chill fruit...

In colder areas you CAN grow high chill fruit.

The chill thing is about how many hours below 7.2 degrees C (45 deg F) a plant needs to accumulate over winter before it will bud (apparently adapted in cold areas so that the tree wouldn't mistake a warm spell in winter for spring, burst into bud, and then get the buds frozen).

If it needs LOTS of hours below 7.2C, then it's called "high-chill", and if it needs less, it's "low-chill".

I guess the thing you would need to think about would be whether the required hours of chill for a given plant could be racked up early enough in winter/spring that you might get budding then caught by frost.

The other thing that might be worth checking is how cold-hardy particular varieties are - I'm not sure how much that varies for particular types of fruit.

Hope that helps...
Cheers, Liz

Time: 6th May 2009 4:07pm

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peter says...
i think we can all agree that you cant put a high chill tree in a low chill area.
but lisas main question is can you go the other way round and put a low chill tree in a high chill area.

Time: 6th May 2009 4:54pm

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Elizabeth says...
I think it is possible to put a low chill tree in a high chill area, but it depends what tree exactly. IF you have something that is tropical by nature and is low chill for that reason, obviously it will be hard to grow that somewhere with cold winters without some frost protection in the early years. If its a temperate tree like a peach or apple that is low chill, it should be fine and you will just get ealry season fruit. Although one thing to look out for is if you get late frosts - if so, make sure you get a late flowering tree as the frost can kill the blossom otherwise.

Time: 6th May 2009 6:04pm

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Julie says...
Liz, I just made a mistake in typing. Oops!

I meant to write 'you don't have to stick to high chill fruit' and 'it is difficult to grow high chill fruit in a warmer area'. I think the rest of it was fairly clear?

I didn't mention tropical fruit,because this would be another subject.



Time: 6th May 2009 7:45pm

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