Greetings all. I recently asked a question regarding the number of chilling hours you guys can count on in winter, but I posted it on an older video meaning that you may not have seen the question. I'm trying to determine if I get enough chilling hours for Spring Satin Plum (Plumcot) to bloom properly in my climate near Savannah GA. Your tree obviously got enough chilling hours to bloom, and since you have a banana tree which made something, the number of chilling hours you get may be really low as well. If you know the number of chilling hours you can count on, that would be awesome information. If not, I can figure it out through meteorological data if you share what state and county you are in. Thanks.
We had a really mild winter last year, near Gainesville, Florida, and almost everyone that had bananas in the ground last year got fruit this year, many that had never gotten bananas before. In about 30-35 years of having the orinoco bananas, this is only the second time we've had ripe bananas before a freeze wiped them out. In all of my years here, we've probably had zone 7 freezes many years back, but officially, it's USDA zone 9a, albeit I would bet that we still get some 8b freezes. Downtown Gainesville has many microclimates that have been measured upwards of USDA ZONE 10 temperatures near large ponds, etc, but we are in the boonies, with no large buildings and not near any lakes or ponds. That said, in 2022 I believe, many people lost a lot of their citrus trees and subtropicals, as supposedly there were microclimates that got as low as about 16 degrees in Chiefland, Florida, when people went out during those several days of freezes and measured temps at different spots in their yard. Sorry, I'm not sure of how many chill hours we generally get each year.
@@nataliejacobsen5336 This is great information. What I know for sure is that you get less chilling hours than I do here. Last year we had a mild but cool winter if that makes any sense. In other words, we raked up more chilling hours than usual but didn't have any hard freezes. It was the perfect winter for me with my citrus and plum trees. I'm in downtown Statesboro. Seriously, there is business district in every direction from my neighborhood which means my orchard is usually two or three degrees warmer than most of the rest of the county during hard freezes. Two years ago, I got very little damage during a 16F freeze while a commercial grower five miles south of me lost 500 trees. I often get to sell plums at a premium because I'm the only one who grows them in the region who's fruit didn't get yacked by a late frost. Still, I would be shocked if someone in the Gainseville FL area ever gets 500 chilling hours. By the way, have you heard about Gulf Series plums? They were developed by U of Florida in the 90s. Just Fruits and Exotics out of Tallahassee has them, but their stock is badly over-priced now. They would be yacked by late frosts every season here, but they would be perfect for you. I doubt they would bloom with your Spring Satin, but my hunch is that they would be more reliable producers for you. The anecdotal evidence I'm reading on Spring Satin is that it tends to bloom with but later than Santa Rosa. In your context where it's at the very bottom of its chilling requirement it would likely bloom late relative to something that should bloom at the same time but has a lower chilling requirement. Oh, I just saw on your other post that you added hog plum. If by hog plum you mean, Prunus umbellatta, that should do the job. I have a hard to pollinize cherry plum hybrid which sometimes blooms too early to bloom with Auburn University Cherry. When it does, I bring P. umbelatta branches in the yard and set them in 5 gallon buckets under the tree. Not only does it cause that tree to produce, every other plum in the orchard that blooms with it produces better than they otherwise do. The only reason I don't bring flowers in every year is because I worry about introducing diseases to the orchard.
@@coolmantoole I actually tried a santa rosa plum many years ago, and it only lasted a couple of years before just dying. Yes, I've heard of the gulf series of plums There is a nursery nearby called Blue Star, in Hawthorne, that sells them for $30, usually 3 gallon sized. The problem that I've had with locally-selected prunus rootstocks is that they may be selected for Florida's sandy soil but not quite for the swamp muck and flooding that we have. The plumcot we have, it came from Isons nursery, and they never would answer the question regarding what rootstock they used, but it has withstood some major flooding over the years. As far as spring satin plumcots in your area, I suppose the only way you'll know if something will work for your area is to try. I've even been told by one of the local nursery owners that Sunflower paw paws aren't suppose to do well in Florida at all, but it's my heaviest bloomer, more than 'Mango' and 'NC-1'. Getting them pollinated, however, is the biggest issue so far.
@@nataliejacobsen5336 FYI, the Ison webpage now says that all their plums are grafted onto citation rootstock. Citation is a plum X peach hybrid that is specifically good for wet soils. It has a poor reputation for tolerating drought conditions, but if any rootstock will take the conditions you discribed, that would be the one. Thanks.
Greetings all. I recently asked a question regarding the number of chilling hours you guys can count on in winter, but I posted it on an older video meaning that you may not have seen the question. I'm trying to determine if I get enough chilling hours for Spring Satin Plum (Plumcot) to bloom properly in my climate near Savannah GA. Your tree obviously got enough chilling hours to bloom, and since you have a banana tree which made something, the number of chilling hours you get may be really low as well. If you know the number of chilling hours you can count on, that would be awesome information. If not, I can figure it out through meteorological data if you share what state and county you are in. Thanks.
We had a really mild winter last year, near Gainesville, Florida, and almost everyone that had bananas in the ground last year got fruit this year, many that had never gotten bananas before. In about 30-35 years of having the orinoco bananas, this is only the second time we've had ripe bananas before a freeze wiped them out. In all of my years here, we've probably had zone 7 freezes many years back, but officially, it's USDA zone 9a, albeit I would bet that we still get some 8b freezes. Downtown Gainesville has many microclimates that have been measured upwards of USDA ZONE 10 temperatures near large ponds, etc, but we are in the boonies, with no large buildings and not near any lakes or ponds. That said, in 2022 I believe, many people lost a lot of their citrus trees and subtropicals, as supposedly there were microclimates that got as low as about 16 degrees in Chiefland, Florida, when people went out during those several days of freezes and measured temps at different spots in their yard. Sorry, I'm not sure of how many chill hours we generally get each year.
@@nataliejacobsen5336 This is great information. What I know for sure is that you get less chilling hours than I do here. Last year we had a mild but cool winter if that makes any sense. In other words, we raked up more chilling hours than usual but didn't have any hard freezes. It was the perfect winter for me with my citrus and plum trees. I'm in downtown Statesboro. Seriously, there is business district in every direction from my neighborhood which means my orchard is usually two or three degrees warmer than most of the rest of the county during hard freezes. Two years ago, I got very little damage during a 16F freeze while a commercial grower five miles south of me lost 500 trees. I often get to sell plums at a premium because I'm the only one who grows them in the region who's fruit didn't get yacked by a late frost. Still, I would be shocked if someone in the Gainseville FL area ever gets 500 chilling hours. By the way, have you heard about Gulf Series plums? They were developed by U of Florida in the 90s. Just Fruits and Exotics out of Tallahassee has them, but their stock is badly over-priced now. They would be yacked by late frosts every season here, but they would be perfect for you. I doubt they would bloom with your Spring Satin, but my hunch is that they would be more reliable producers for you. The anecdotal evidence I'm reading on Spring Satin is that it tends to bloom with but later than Santa Rosa. In your context where it's at the very bottom of its chilling requirement it would likely bloom late relative to something that should bloom at the same time but has a lower chilling requirement. Oh, I just saw on your other post that you added hog plum. If by hog plum you mean, Prunus umbellatta, that should do the job. I have a hard to pollinize cherry plum hybrid which sometimes blooms too early to bloom with Auburn University Cherry. When it does, I bring P. umbelatta branches in the yard and set them in 5 gallon buckets under the tree. Not only does it cause that tree to produce, every other plum in the orchard that blooms with it produces better than they otherwise do. The only reason I don't bring flowers in every year is because I worry about introducing diseases to the orchard.
@@coolmantoole I actually tried a santa rosa plum many years ago, and it only lasted a couple of years before just dying. Yes, I've heard of the gulf series of plums There is a nursery nearby called Blue Star, in Hawthorne, that sells them for $30, usually 3 gallon sized. The problem that I've had with locally-selected prunus rootstocks is that they may be selected for Florida's sandy soil but not quite for the swamp muck and flooding that we have. The plumcot we have, it came from Isons nursery, and they never would answer the question regarding what rootstock they used, but it has withstood some major flooding over the years. As far as spring satin plumcots in your area, I suppose the only way you'll know if something will work for your area is to try. I've even been told by one of the local nursery owners that Sunflower paw paws aren't suppose to do well in Florida at all, but it's my heaviest bloomer, more than 'Mango' and 'NC-1'. Getting them pollinated, however, is the biggest issue so far.
@@nataliejacobsen5336 FYI, the Ison webpage now says that all their plums are grafted onto citation rootstock. Citation is a plum X peach hybrid that is specifically good for wet soils. It has a poor reputation for tolerating drought conditions, but if any rootstock will take the conditions you discribed, that would be the one. Thanks.