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Old 03-28-2012, 07:26 PM   #6 (permalink)
barnetmill
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Default Re: Chill hours and hardiness and getting fruit

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Originally Posted by venturabananas View Post
To paraphrase, I think it was "can a nursery list chill hours as lower than the plant has been tested?"

I would say that ethically, they can't. My understanding is the lowest chill hours listed are based on growing that exact cultivar in an area with the lowest chill hours listed and having it produce fruit. I've heard comments from nursery folks, including employee's of Dave Wilson (the wholesale nursery that Richard mentioned), along the lines of "we list it as needing at least xxx chill hours, but we know it has fruiting with fewer chill hours than that." As enough reliable information is gathered, you will sometimes see a grower or nursery drop the chill hour estimate because of that new information. My sense is that most reputable nurseries err on the side of listing more chill hours than are absolutely necessary.

And I think it is agreed that chill hours are an oversimplification of the biology involved. For example, I would think it's got to matter whether the chill hours occur early in dormancy or late in dormancy.
So it is not just total chill hour but the temporal sequence. In my area we get middle 20's and lower that can be followed by 70's and then the lower 20's again. I wonder also if for pears for example react the same way as peaches would to temporal temperature patterns.
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