- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
National Public Radio highlighted a growing concern for San Joaquin Valley tree fruit and nut farmers - diminishing winter chill in an age of climate change. "Warm winters mess with nut trees' sex lives," reported Lauren Summer on Morning Edition.
For example, adequate winter chill allows female and male pistachio trees to wake up simultaneously, which is ideal for pollen to be available for wind to carry it to blooms on female trees.
Fresno State agriculture professor Gurreet Brar, a former UC Cooperative Extension advisor, is testing whether horticultural spray application at different...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
When the National Weather Service announced that December 2015 temperatures were as chilly as "normal," farmers cheered. Many fruit and nut trees require cool weather to reset their biological clocks and ensure a healthy crop, reported Robert Rodriguez in the Fresno Bee.
Chill requirements vary by crop and variety. Some cherries, apricots, peaches and pistachios requiring a significant accumulation of cold weather to rest and then start growing again when the temperatures warm. For example, without a cold winter, pistachio trees get confused at the beginning of...
