South African Apples

[flimbin]

I think we require a period of cold weather to grow apples. If that is so, how do they manage it in hot countries like South Africa?

[Steve Peek]

South Africa is far from tropical. It's about as far south as Pennsylvania is north.

[David Hare-Scott]

Apples do need a period of chilling to flower but the amount of chilling depends on the cultivar, for some it is quite short. So I can grow many apples here in Australia in an area which would be classed as quite hot by most people in Europe or North America. A typical summer day range is from

20-30C and it can reach 43C. The reason apples fruit here is that in winter there are enough cold days to meet the chilling requirement, typical day range is 4-14C but a minimum of -4C is possible. My understanding is that South Africa would be similar, especially the inland away from the moderating effect of the ocean.

In the tropics where the seasons are more likely wet/dry than hot/cold the summer maximum is less than here but the winter minimum is much higher, this lack of winter chilling makes it harder to get apples to flower in the tropics. I am not aware of any apple cultivar that has no chilling requirement but apparently there are chemicals that simulate the effect to some degree.

here is some data on local cultivars:

[flimbin]

Brilliant! Thanks