cherry trees in florida

Does anyone know if it's possible to get cherry trees growing in Florida ? I've been reading that they require a frost to become fruitful so I don't think they will grow any fruit, but I'm willing to try. I've got some seeds that have been sitting in the fridge for about two months that were taken out of some cherries that were eaten. They've been sitting in the fridge for two months in a cup of moist peat moss.

Reply to
Jim Carlock
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Prunus serotina, black cherry, is native to some parts of florida, but I wouldnt try to grow them any farther south than zone 9(south of lake okechobee, to make it easier) As for the commercially available fruiting types, sweet cherries will do okay in zone 8(northern florida and the panhandle). Try and get them from semi locally available sources and they will probably perform better for you. Hope this helps!

Toad

Reply to
Marley1372

Cherries won't thrive without substantial winter chill. Standard cherries such as Bing need at least 600 to 800 hours below freezing every winter. (I think Rainier needs the least, about 600 hours.) I don't know where in Florida you'd find such a location.

Reply to
Christopher Green

Surprising to me. Wash D.C. has this much cold for their renown cherry trees?

Reply to
Brad Snow

NW FL (specifically, the western half of the "panhandle") has some locations that get 600 chill hours.

I live in Panama City, FL, and according to the University of Florida, my area averages 550-650 chilling hours per year. In the Pensacola area they probably get a little more. (Although areas within a couple of miles of the coast get substantially less than this due to the insulating effect of the Gulf of Mexico.)

Unfortunately, some years we have very mild winters and get maybe half as many chilling hours.

Supposedly the "Stella" sweet cherry cultivar takes 500-600 hours (depends on which source you ask), so *in theory* it should be OK here.

I've talked to people growing "Stella" cherries in near-coastal SC (who also get about 600 chill hours/year), and supposedly the trees do OK there. I still worry about whether a cherry tree could survive the long, hot, humid summers (and the resulting high insect and disease pressure) we have down here.

I've been thinking about ordering a "Stella" and trying it. If I ever figure out a good place to put it I will probably take the risk.

Meanwhile, I am enjoying my Saturn peach, which has a 400-hour chill requirement and is bearing heavily. I am also growing 5 apple trees with chill requirements ranging from 150 to 600 hours. The higher-chill varieties are too young to bear yet (possibly next year, but more likely in 2006), but seem very healthy and are thriving so far.

HTH, Laura NW FL - USDA Zone 8b

Reply to
Laura Stanley

Wow... I'm in Tampa. The average daily temp here is 72 to 78 degrees over the year.

I've never seen a cherry tree here. The cherry trees I've seen were up in the states of Washington, Oregon and Vancouver, Canada.

I've been reading that they won't bear fruit without a freeze. Or will the whole tree just be stressed and die off ?

Thanks for the reply.

Reply to
Jim Carlock

Florida has a much larger range of climates than most people realize. About the only accurate generalizations you can make about Florida climates are: (1) summers are hot and LONG, and (2) snow is VERY rare.

In answer to your question, fruit trees that get insufficient chill hours bloom poorly (few blooms over an extended period instead of lots of blooms all at once) or don't bloom at all. Leaf out will also be late and/or sparse, and the tree's growth can be reduced.

It's my understanding that if a tree gets sufficient chill hours *most* years but experiences an occasional winter that's too warm, the tree will be OK, although it will bear little to no fruit during the season following the warm winter.

However, if the tree receives insufficient chilling hours every year, it will weaken and die within a few years.

Down in Tampa, you probably only get about 200 chilling hours/year (less if you're very close to the bay/Gulf). So, a cherry tree would be out of the question.

This link from the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF IFAS) will give you an idea of what fruits you

*can* reasonably expect to grow, if you're interested in fruits other than cherries:
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also has a map showing average chill hours for each part of the state, but I've lost my link to it, and I don't have time to find it again now. If you search around on the IFAS website you should be able to find it.

Good luck, Laura

Reply to
Laura Stanley

Those are flowering, not fruiting, cherries. There are quite a few flowering cherries that get by on little chill. And D.C. is surprisingly cold in the winter.

The cherries of D.C. are mainly 'Yoshino' (there are 12 varieties in all planted there), which rarely fruits.

Reply to
Christopher Green

Thanks Laura,

I think this is probably the link you were looking for. I was hoping they'd have a visual map, but the chart below works well enough. I live in St. Petersburg, FL, which is right on the Gulf, a peninsula surrounded by water, the Gulf of Mexico on one side, Tampa Bay on the other. Sea Manatee roam the coast line and we're getting a good amount of hurricane rain. Bradenton is just south of us. St. Petersburg is urbanized for the most part, a lot of tar and asphalt. :-)

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far as fruit trees, I think your statement might need to be qualified a little further. Oranges, mangos, avocados grow pretty good all over central and southern Florida. The chill days, like you said, tend to be very low. If wind chill is counted, that might help.

I don't think the chill days apply to oranges, lemons or grapefruits, but I don't have a clue. Usually if there's a freeze the orange groves complain about losses of fruit. But that tends to only occur when it actually freezes for a week or more. It's been a while since Florida has had one of those freezes. Please correct me if I'm wrong about the oranges and grapefruit and lemons and limes. :-) Please confirm if I'm correct. I just don't have a clue and I'm basing what I'm saying upon old news in the past (about 1979).

Reply to
Jim Carlock

Ahhh...I was unclear. Sorry.

Yes, I should have differentiated between temperate climate fruits, tropical fruits, and subtropical fruits.

Temperate climate fruits (like the cherries we were discussing, plus apples, pears, peaches, etc.) have high minimum chilling requirements. Cold hardiness varies a lot, but temperate fruit trees will generally survive temperatures below zero.

You are right that tropical fruits (like mangos and most citrus fruits) need no chill hours at all. And yes, many tropical fruit trees can tolerate little or no frost. Some are a little hardier, but will be still be damaged or killed by temperatures in the mid-to-upper 20s.

There are also a some fruits that are adapted to "subtropical" and "mild temperate" climates, such as mandarin oranges, limequats, loquats, figs, etc. They usually have a low chilling requirement (50-150 hours) or no chilling requirement at all. These trees usually perform better in areas that at least have a "cool season" than in a truly tropical climate. Subtropicals will generally survive temperatures into the teens or single digits.

Regarding citrus trees in particular, there's a wide range of cold hardiness. Key lime trees are damaged by even a hint of frost. OTOH, mandarin orange and limequat trees tolerate temperatures into the lower teens. Grapefruit and orange trees are in the middle - some cultivars can withstand temperatures into the mid-20s. The fruits themselves are usually damaged by temperatures of 28 degrees or below for four hours - smaller fruit will freeze faster than larger fruit.

Where you live, I think you could grow most any citrus except limes and lemons. You *might* be able to grow limes (other than key limes) and lemons if you had a way to protect the trees from freezes.

Regarding wind chill, I read somewhere on the IFAS site (forgot to bookmark the page, unfortunately) that you can't consider wind chill when counting chill hours for fruit trees. Wish I had the link for you.

Thanks for the FAWN link. It's not the link I was referring to; I had actually found a map of the state of Florida showing the average chill hours in each part of the state. I still can't find that chill hours map; maybe IFAS doesn't have it on their site anymore.

Unfortunately, all of the sites the FAWN link lists for N Florida are well inland of me, and so the chilling hours at those sites are a lot higher than the chilling hours in my yard. Maybe one day they'll add an observation site closer to me.

In any case, if you decide you want to grow some fruit trees, your county agricultural extension office will be happy to tell you exactly which ones grow best in your area. They should be listed in your telephone book.

Laura

Reply to
Laura Stanley

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