Chillax Dude!

Pride Peach Tree-Bird Back 40

Chill! Chill out dude! Take a chill pill! Dude, just chill for a minute, will you? It was the "cool" word of the day -- way back in the day when I was a young man. Back when horse drawn carriages plied pretty red brick lined streets of Old Sacramento, and...

Oh, who am I kidding. I'm old, yes. But ancient? Only in the eyes of someone half my age, say 26 or 27? But, seriously, I can remember this word. I can remember it because my friends and I used it often. Usually, we called upon the magic word to stop our friends from saying or doing something rather foolish.

Or, perhaps they'd already done something foolish. Like -- trying to appeal a member of the opposite sex by complimenting her on that very pretty undergarment she was wearing at that particular moment. At that point, we had to rush him off and drag the offender away from the highly-offended member of the opposite sex, while muttering the entire time, "yo, dude, major error on your part! Just chill for a minute."

Eva's Pride Peach

I sometimes wonder how teenage boys survive to become men. But I digress.

Those precocious teenage years are but a distant and now blurry dot on that rear view mirror we call life. I'm older now. With age comes the rewards of crankiness, grouchiness, grumpiness and a somewhat disturbing loss of bowel control. Win!

But -- not everything changes. I'm still using that cool word we call "chill." Only now it has an entirely different, but still very important, meaning. Those of us who grow all sorts of delicious fruit for fun or profit also know the importance behind the magic word of "chill." But it's not "chill out dude," it's more like "check the chill hours, dude."

Honeycrisp Apple-Requires 800 Chill Hours

What are chill hours and why are they so important? Are you really that bored with life that you want to learn? Become a nerd like yours truly? Then, you're in luck. Because I am always willing to share the nerd germ with anyone who wants it.

Sleep is an important factor in our lives. Most of us don't get enough of it and yearn for more when that damn alarm starts going off, or the Maine Coon cat starts using a baseball bat against the sliding glass door. But it's not just important for people and pets. Fruit trees need a nap too -- and a long one at that.

In some ways fruit trees are a lot like that child that will not accept an 8:00 PM bedtime. They'll cry, they'll moan, they'll complain. And then -- after all that -- comes the fun of a childhood tantrum. Fruit trees follow much the same behavior. They will stubbornly stay awake until that very last possible moment and will resist the urge to lose every last leaf and fall into a deep, winter slumber.

Harrow Delight Pear-Requires 800 Chill Hours

These are the chill hours I speak of. I've come to discover, through trial and error, that they are vitally important to the health of next summer's crop. Because a fruit tree that doesn't get enough chill hours is just as cranky as that child who stayed up far too long past that 8:00 PM mandatory bedtime.

Ah -- but not all fruit trees are created equal. That Pride Peach collection pictured above and now coming into bloom has a far different chill requirement than the Black Tartarian Cherry tree planted nearby. Some fruit trees require a lot of chill hours. Some, not as much. That's why it's always best to check the chill hour requirement BEFORE you make that fruit tree or bush purchase. Chill hour requirements are just as important as the gardening zones that determine what type of and when vegetables should be planted.

The current drought that I hope and pray will come to a speedy end this winter means more than just a lack of water for fruit tree growers. When the rain stops falling and the storms move way, it tends to start warming up. And when it warms up early as it has for the past two to three years, fruit trees that require a lot of chill hours tend to suffer a great deal.

Black Tartarian Cherry-800 Chill Hours

Something simple like a lack of chill hours can result in a reduced harvest or no harvest at all. This is why prices for fresh cherries have been so high in some parts of the country. If that Black Tartarian cherry tree doesn't get the required 800 chill hours of slumber, it doesn't matter how much water or fertilizer it gets during the spring and summer months. It's just not going to produce.

I've learned the same hard lesson about other fruit trees that have long chill hour requirements -- like the best apple on God's Green Earth: The Honeycrisp Apple. If the Honeycrisp doesn't get that 800 hour chill hour nap during the winter, much like the Black Tartarian cherry, production is going to suffer.

It's not just production that can suffer. Sometimes a fruit tree that doesn't get enough chill hours will produce a lot of fruit. But that fruit will often be smaller, and in the case of last year's June Pride peach crop, lumpier. Lumpy peaches don't look appealing. They don't taste all that grand either.

Royal Rosa Apricot Preparing to Flower

Commercial growers long ago learned the secret behind and the importance of chill hours. That's why the fine folks at the UC Davis Fruit and Nut Research and Information Division long ago developed a very handy and dandy chill calculator page. By clicking on this page you can see the chill hours that are taking place in every county of California, and more importantly, the chill hours in your very own backyard.

The nearest chill hour station to the Bird Back 40 is just over the Yolo County line, near Woodland. Like the true fruit nerd that I am -- I visit this page often during the all important winter months. The chill hours ranging between a high of 45 degrees and a low of 32 are the most important statistic. The Bird Back 40 is up to nearly 700 chill hours as I write this -- and that is the cause for a very wide smile on my part. I haven't seen this type of cold weather treatment for awhile and fruit production has suffered.

5-in-1 Apricot Tree

Although most Sacramento County locations normally average about 1,000 chill hours during most years -- the last two winters have been anything but normal. It didn't rain or snow a lot -- and it didn't stay cold for nearly long enough. Our chill hours suffered. Instead of the expected and hoped for average of 1,000 chill hours -- some areas received less than 600. Fruit trees flowered weeks earlier than expected and production suffered.

Short and sweet, there is absolutely nothing a grower can do if Mother Nature doesn't deliver on some extended cold weather. A lack of chill hours impacts just about every fresh fruit variety grown around here, from apples, peaches, nectarines, plums, pears and even grapes. Think that might impact the price of your favorite variety of wine in two to three years? It might.

Redwood Barn Nursery owner Don Shor recently wrote an impressive article on the tremendous importance of chill hours in the Davis Enterprise. He predicted that the 2015 fresh fruit year might be a bad one. For the most part, he was right on the money.

June Pride Peach Tree

What will 2016 bring us? That's a good question. The jury is still out. If the weather warms up and the storms stay away like they have for the past two to three years, most fruit tree owners are, in a word, screwed.

If there is a silver lining, it's this. We are off to a very good start as far as chill hours are concerned. December started off with and ended with a cold winter's blast. January conditions were nearly as good. The $64 question is, what will February bring?

So, sit back and chill out dude. Chillax for a moment. My Black Tartarian cherry tree will thank you.

The Cruel Tease

What's that song? Accentuate The Positive? Sung so brilliantly by Bing N' Bette in a 1977 television special?

I suppose I could talk about the show the roses are putting on in the backyard. The two giant artichokes we will harvest for dinner tonight? Maybe the monster garlic that is growing even more monstrous with every spring rainstorm or deep watering session on the weekends.

Nope. My "tale" this weekend is one of woe. It's one of those cruel jokes pulled by Mother Nature when I was least expecting it. There's no escaping this one. One of the fruit harvests that I most look forward to every spring and summer is no more -- stolen away -- by a dreaded disease called Brown Rot.

I just spent the better part of this afternoon pulling off every single diseased cherry from this Lapin Cherry tree located to your immediate right.

It wasn't easy -- but it had to be done. There will be no cherries from the Lapin this year -- which is the cruelest of hoaxes and "cherry jobs" that Mother Nature can deliver.

This was the ultimate tease. This tree produced its first crop during it's second year -- last spring. Yes -- it was a small crop. But it was a tasty one at that. The birds got a share. So did the bugs. But Venus and I got a nice taste of what was to come in Year 3. The Lapin -- also called a "self-fruitful Bing" -- is one sweet cherry.

So -- during the winter -- I dreamed of Lapin cherries. Not just one or two. But Lapin cherries by the bucket. Venus and I even planted a Royal Ranier Cherry tree nearby -- because we knew that one cherry tree just wasn't going to be enough.

Venus wanted enough cherries for cherry pies. I wanted to re-live the days of my Modesto youth -- where I could sit in a cherry tree and eat my fill. We took steps to baby the tree during the winter. I trimmed it for the first time. Venus mulched around the base of the tree. By the time spring rolled around -- we had those visions of cherries dancing in our heads.

Sadly -- something went terribly wrong.

Oh sure -- the first thing that took place this spring? The tree burst into a glory of white cherry blossoms. It is the moment I had been waiting for. Hundreds of blossoms covered every branch -- even the trunk of the tree got involved. Venus' two-year old Royal Ranier also got into the act with a few blossoms of its own.

But nothing was putting on a show quite like the Lapin. Venus and I began to make plans. I would need a mesh cover for the tree to fight off the birds. Venus -- meanwhile -- started researching cherry pie recipes.

But -- as time went by -- concern began to slip into that big cranium of mine. I wasn't sure what was wrong -- but something didn't seem right. Some of those white blossoms turned a light shade of brown before they could even fully open up.

This wasn't right -- was it? To be honest kids -- I really didn't know. I've never grown cherry trees before. This is a new experience for me. Perhaps this is normal? Perhaps not every blossom turns into a cherry? Perhaps it's fate that some die off before they can open?

As time went by -- my concern mounted. That light brown color turned darker. It covered entire sections of the tree. Worse yet -- some of that brown was beginning to move into the cherry blossoms that had already opened and developed a cherry husk.

I also noticed -- right about the same time -- that the leaves on Venus' cherry tree were developing at a much faster rate than the leaves on the Lapin. I reasoned -- at the time -- that this must be normal development since the Royal Ranier produces ripe cherries almost a full month before the Lapin. So -- it made sense that the leafsets would develop a little quicker.

Instead of taking action -- I waited. Two weeks later -- I knew that something was wrong. The young, still not quite developed leaves on the Lapin were turning brown. Some of the leafsets at the top of the tree had died back completely. That's when I knew something wasn't quite right in Dodge.

Where to turn? Facebook of course! The Social Media Pages are full of horticulturalists and nursery shop owners who could probably immediately diagnose the problem -- and better yet -- suggest a quick cure. So -- I snapped some photos -- the same photos that you see here -- posted them up on Facebook and asked for help.

It didn't take long. Redwood Barn Nursery Owner Don Shor diagnosed the problem less than eight hours later: Brown Rot. Farmer Fred Hoffman concurred. So did Sacramento Gardening's Angela Pratt. Brown Rot had taken hold of my Lapin Cherry tree -- and was delivering quite the knockout punch.

That's when I turned to the web for a little photo research. I started Googling phrases like "brown rot" and "Lapin Cherry brown rot" and some interesting and alarming photos popped up. Sure enough -- the infected brown rot branches that I found online were an exact match for what was taking place at home.

But even worse than that -- was a photo of a cherry tree that was exhibiting signs of Brown Rot in late summer. The fully developed leaves were turning a dark shade of brown and falling to the ground. It suddenly hit me that my Lapin Cherry had exhibited the exact same signs last fall. Although it should have raised red flags then -- I took the leaf die off and drop as the "sign of fall." The tree -- I reasoned -- would be back.

If only I had known.

The spores that cause Brown Rot overwintered and grew during the wet and cold rainy months. By the time spring hit? Every single branch was covered with disease. And I had no idea until it reared its ugly head with some early blossom die-off. By then? It was already too late. The entire tree was infected.

It didn't take long for the disease to progress. The green cherries that you see in the photos taken two weeks ago have since turned a shade of red and brown. Not a single cherry made it. And I just finished up today with picking the entire 2010 crop and dumping all of it -- every last cherry -- into the green waste bin.

The pie cherries? Gone. The eating cherries? Eaten by disease. The only cherries that Bill Bird will eat this year will come from the Farmer's Market.

Fortunately -- Brown Rot can be controlled. Unlike many diseases that force you to dig up a tree and start over -- regular applications of copper sulfate fungicides should be enough to knock out Brown Rot -- no matter how far it's progression. Other -- stronger -- fungicides are also available for home use. Those will be drafted into this battle at some point as well.

As for Venus' tree -- which is planted just 15 feet away -- so far so good. The tree isn't exhibiting any signs of disease yet. The few cherries on the tree will eventually ripen -- and hopefully Venus will get to one or two of them before our fine feathered friends start feasting away on them.

But if the leaves on this tree suddenly turn brown and begin to fall in late summer or early fall? Well -- at least I'll know what steps to take next.

A Very Berry Experiment -- AKA: They Stay

A Word to the Wise.

Before heading out to your favorite nursery/big box store this weekend to fulfill your gardening duties or fantasies -- I post the following update in response to the previous posting of "A Very Berry Bird Backyard."

It is in this section where I detail the efforts that Venus and I made to increase our berry plantings around the yard. Following the advice of Folsom City Arborist Ken Menzer -- we completed a project by planting bare root blueberry bushes beneath our cherry and peach stone fruit trees.

We took this action after attending a Home Orchard class taught by Mr. Menzer last month. It was there where he offered the following advice of planting blueberries beneath stone fruit trees. To paraphrase: "Blueberry bushes and stone fruit trees have a symbiotic relationship. Blueberry bushes are shallow-rooted -- and help open fissures or pockets that benefit the fruit tree root systems located below. At the same time, the leaves of the stone fruit trees provide cover from the afternoon sun for blueberry bushes planted below."

The Folsom City Arborist offered the same advice with the planting of herbs like Spearmint underneath apple tree plantings. The symbiotic relationship -- he indicated -- was similar.

I want to advise my vast readership (all 2.5 of you) that Venus and I are not "experts" in the gardening field. We are not Arborists. We are not Certified Master Gardeners. We're not even close. We are just your normal, everyday, couple. We love to garden. We blog about gardening. But that is as far as it goes.

I offer this word of warning because it seems that we've set off a small firestorm of controversey regarding this planting of blueberry bushes beneath stone fruit trees. Please be advised that there ARE -- indeed -- Certified Master Gardeners who do NOT agree with what we have done here.

One of these Master Gardeners who I mention often on this blog -- and is probably the most popular and well-known gardener in all of Northern California is Farmer Fred Hoffman -- who hosts the Sunday gardening shows on NewsTalk 1530 KFBK and Talk 650 KSTE.

I refer to Fred often because he is perhaps one of my biggest gardening mentors. I've learned a lot from listening to his show -- and also learned a great deal when I was working with Fred at both stations. Although I didn't work directly with him -- I could hear him from my perch at the "News Update Desk."

It's safe to say that Mr. Hoffman was not at all pleased with the blueberry planting efforts highlighted in "A Very Berry Bird Backyard" -- but he's not the only one. Others in his corner include Redwood Barn Nursery Owner Don Shor, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Horticulture and Angela Pratt, who holds a similar degree in Horticulture and is also the creator and the brains behind Sacramento Gardening.

Let me tell you this much: These people know what they are talking about when it comes to any sort of landscaping effort around the front or backyard. They know far more than I'll ever know in five lifetimes of gardening. They know what works. They also know what doesn't work.

Planting blueberry bushes underneath fruit trees? According to all three? It's NOT GOING TO WORK.

Get that? Let me repeat: IT'S NOT GOING TO WORK.

Why? Well -- the first warning came from Fred Hoffman AFTER we had completed our planting efforts. In his words: "What is the pH of the soil where you planted the blueberries? If it is above 6, you may have poor production. This is why blueberry planting around here is recommended for containers, where you can control the pH."

Not only that -- he provided this link to the Dave Wilson Nursery website -- where the number one piece of advice was:

"To make growing Blueberries easier, Do NOT Plant them in the ground!!"

Oh boy. Oh joy. I could just imagine the look on my wife's face after she worked so hard to put these blueberry bushes underneath the fruit trees in question. And now we had to pull them out? But why would Ken Menzer indicate this was an acceptable pairing?

Fred's advice on the matter continued with the following link from the University of California Cooperative Extension. This helpful information also contained the highlighted words of advice:

"A major requirement, however, is that blueberries require an acidic soil with a pH of about 5.0 to 5.5. Blueberries are in the same family as azaleas and rhododendrons, and need similar growing conditions."

Fruit trees like peaches -- I was to later learn -- do best in a soil pH range of 6.0 to 7.0. Blueberry bushes require an even more acidic soil with a pH of 5.0 to 5.5. Yes -- while both pH readings are considered to be in the "acidic range," the requirements of both do not mix well together.

In other words -- if the following information and advice are true -- stone fruit trees and blueberry bushes make for poor cousins and should not share the same living quarters.

Yet -- at the same time -- both Venus and I keep reading the notes and advice we learned from Ken Menzer. He didn't just have "words of advice," he illustrated the pairing together in a series of slides from his home orchard.

And there it was: visual proof. Blueberry bushes planted directly beneath stone fruit trees. Not just any blueberry bush mind you -- but HIGHLY PRODUCTIVE bushes that were loaded with berries.

Pictures do not lie.

Now -- I offer this posting to you as a warning. It's not that I do not believe or reject the advice of well respected gardeners like Fred Hoffman, Don Shor or Angela Pratt. All three of them are on the same page when it comes to time-tested advice of where blueberry bushes should be planted -- and where they should not be planted.

I will also add that whenever I've ignored the good advice offered by one or all three -- I wind up regretting it a great deal. Not all of the time mind you -- but most of the time.

But as far as we're concerned? We're stubborn. We're going to leave the Southern Highbush Blueberry bushes right where they are planted. If gardening can be singled down to one word it would be EXPERIMENT.

As far as our little experiment is concerned: Time will tell. The blueberry bushes that we planted last weekend will either produce -- or not produce. We're taking a chance at this -- but it's a chance we're willing to take.

As for you? Well -- it's up to you. Consider yourself *informed.*