Backyard Chill Hours for fruit trees - Microclimates

 

Yarrahapinni Blood 

Guess your backyards Chill hours?

Answer: [My location or District, State] [Chill Hours]
eg. Kyogle, NSW 400 hours

Chill hours are "very loosely" defined as the number of hours below 7 degrees you get in Winter.

If lots of people comment from the same area as you, Then you can use the maths of averaging to get a more accurate picture where you live (Great for beginners) so please all you old hands help out.
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This picture is of a Yarrahapinni Blood Plum and requires 450 chill hours to fruit ( Medium Chill )

What happens if you get it Wrong?
**Too low** - eg. 200 chill hours (Low Chill location)
Answer: Worst scenario is when this plant is deciduous (no leaves) in winter. The fruit tree would think it hasn't got enough chill and may never break dormancy (grow leaves again). Otherwise it may wait too long even into summer to break dormancy and may also die out. Best scenario is where some varieties handle the wrong chill hours very well and may break dormancy and fruit but are likely to do this at unexpected times. Found out by Trial and Error.

**Too High** - eg. 800 chill hours (High Chill location)
Answer: Worst case scenario is during winter you may get 1 hotter than normal day. Since the chill hour requirement has been met it will think it's time to break dormancy. As soon as it does the temperature drops again and the leaves drop and the tree may die this way. Again some varieties handle this better than others and you need to find this out by Trial and error. 

Microclimates and Chill Hours: Just because you live in Melbourne doesn't mean you are high chill and just because you live on the QLD sunshine coast doesn't mean you are low/no chill. We don't mean that some parts of Melbourne have a tropical climate but you may live in a bizarre microclimate location where hot air rushes up early morning and the opposite may be the case in the QLD sunshine coast where you may live in a cold pocket allowing you to grow plants with chill requirements. If so let us all know what successes you have had. #chillhours #fruittrees #plumtree #YarrahapinniPlum