Posts Tagged: bloom
Sorghum Seeding Rate Trial - Update
We are continuing a trial that we began last year to evaluate optimum seeding rates for grain...
Spring into Fall
The drought has caused numerous conditions – physiological and pathological – that I have only seen in text books (see our newsletter article: http://ceventura.ucanr.edu/newsletters/Topics_in_Subtropics63007.pdf). But other phenomena are also occurring. Recently I saw a field of blackberries in full bloom and the other day a grower called in about a plum tree that was also in full bloom. What is going on? This is supposed to happen late winter/early spring. It turns out that often drought stress can supplant winter chill in some plant species. In this case, these two species are relatively low chill, meaning they don't require a lot of cold to break winter bud dormancy. The drought stress causes the buds to break dormancy.
This is similar to the “Verdelli” effect in lemons. This is a technique used to shift the period of optimum fruit production to a more profitable period, usually the summer when more lemons are used. In the case of plum and blackberry and other low chill deciduous tree crops, this would be pushing production into the coldest period of the year. It might work along the coast, but in the Central Valley it would probably just mean frozen fruit. But it's a possible method that we might play with.
Photo: October, 2016
plum blooming in fall
Update on the Demo Garden
I was looking through my email to see when I last sent an update and I couldn't find it!! I can't...
An Unusual Spring
We had a pretty mild winter, in spite of the freeze damage that occurred in the Central Valley. Now we are seeing what happens when there's not enough chilling to break bud. There is erratic flowering and leaf out. This can be quite pronounced in such trees as peach and apricots, apples and pears. There can be well developed fruit, flowers and a leaf flush all occurring at the same time. We select low chill varieties when we know the climate where we live won't regularly get a certain amount of cold sufficient to cause an even bloom. But sometimes it just doesn't get cold enough for a long enough period. Even 'Hass' avocado requires about 50 hours below 45 deg to properly leaf out. This is happening to some of our native trees as well, such as sycamore
Below is a photo of a confused peach taken by Lynn Wunderlich
uneven peach bloom
Flowers Galore
Last weekend, the entrance to the Hansen Center was, once again, filled with color, plants and...