High-Chill Apples in Low-Chill Orange County

Tom Spellman and Phil Pursel take you on a tour of a two year old test block of apple trees planted at the South Coast Field Station in Irvine, California. All high chill apple varieties, rated from 500 to 1100 chill hours, that shouldn't be fruiting in Irvine. Can Tom's apple experiment finally dispel the myth of apple chill?

[danihall]

We're growing high chill apples in coastal Central Florida and people think we're nuts, but they're healthy and thriving beautifully in heat, bugs, and humidity! I follow tropical apple culture from Africa. Plants are amazing!

[gogogardener]

I appreciate explanation of tree irrigation. That's my weak point in my garden and orchard. Keep that info coming please!

[mikebucket]

So... Comparing apples in Orange? Love it.

[johnlord]

10* Glad to hear about this. Lived in Irvine area, and now SanFran, so happy to see same comments about my WA state and ability to expand apple territory.

[mattweber]

Any information or trials on pears being able to produce in areas below their chill rating?

[beebeebeeleaves]

This is great info! More options, means more diverse plantings in our neighborhoods. Exciting work, thank you!

[mihacurk]

Thank you very much for sharing this project with us! Here in central Europe we don't have this kind of problems but it is so interesting to hear about it! Kep up the good work!

[mrminer]

Here's Kevin Hauser's comments on this apple experiment.
TL;DR:

""Dixie Red Delight, Golden Russet, Red Fuji, Sierra Beauty, and Belle de Boskoop blew your head off. The hand’s-down favorite was Hudson’s Golden Gem, and exceptional flavor and crunch. By the end of the morning most of the pruning was done and we all ended up with bags of apples to take home.""








This orchard has 30 varieties of apples listed between 800-1, 000 hours of chill requirement, specifically:

Yellow Newtown Pippin
Bramley Seedling
Ashmead’s Kernel
Melrose
Belle de Boskoop
Waltana
Hudson’s Golden Gem
King of Tompkins County
Mutsu
Golden Russet
Arkansas Black
Gravenstein
Cox’s Orange Pippin
Sierra Beauty
Liberty
Jonagold
Akane
Honeycrisp
Snow
Golden Delicious
Empire
Zestar
Scarlet Sentinel
Red Fuji
North Pole
Braeburn

Tom had told me previously that he had a good fruit set despite lack of thinning, but we were all shocked at the size, quality, and quantity of apples still left on the trees, not to mention the pile on the ground under each tree. This orchard is 10 miles from the beach, next to the Orange County Great Park, the former El Toro MCAS, and surrounded by avocado groves on two sides. This research station is used mostly for testing semi tropic crops like dragon fruit, avocado, cherimoya, and persimmon, and is watered exclusively with reclaimed irrigation (much to the stress of the avocados). It gets at the most 200 chilling hours, and last winter was extremely warm. Once we got past the New Year’s Day freeze (8” of snow killing thousands of avocados in Temecula), we had weeks straight of temps in the 80s and 90s through February.

We had a lot of work to do and not much time, and so we started pruning immediately, grabbing what apples we could out of the branches and off the ground. Some were past their prime this being January and all, but Dixie Red Delight, Golden Russet, Red Fuji, Sierra Beauty, and Belle de Boskoop blew your head off. The hand’s-down favorite was Hudson’s Golden Gem, and exceptional flavor and crunch. By the end of the morning most of the pruning was done and we all ended up with bags of apples to take home.

There are two trees of each variety, and they didn’t get a lot of training while growing. An eastern transplant to the field station who had extensive apple experience at WSU had recommended to Tom that he convert the trees to tall spindle, which I concurred, and so he decided to convert over one of each of the two trees per variety, and the other one to remain an open vase shape as to preserve some production for next season. He also resolved to thin the fruit hard this spring for the best size.

The orchard could have easily supported a roadside stand, if it wasn’t situated in a highly developed area of Orange County on land probably worth hundreds of millions of dollars (2BR 1 BA single story homes start at $1 million). Being this close to the ocean, high temperatures are moderated to a max high of about 105F, but lows rarely get below 40F.

It was interesting to compare the apples here with the ones at my house farther inland in Riverside. Braeburn and Ashmead’s Kernel turn to mush in our heat, but in the moderate climate of Irvine they were both fantastic. I also have one tiny Arkansas Black tree that never produced, but the two trees of it in Irvine were loaded, showing that it isn’t the lack of chill that’s preventing mine from bearing. I supplied some of the scionwood to establish the orchard, and so it wasn’t a surprise to me that the trees were bearing, but I was surprised at the crop load so early in the M111’s lifetime. The farming conditions there are perfect; a deep sandy loam with good fertility, no pests or disease, no frost, and timed irrigation.

Tom had been discouraged by DWN staff and the Field Station management from trying this experiment, as all said it would result in embarrassing failure. I remarked that this is why most low-chill apple research is done by private individuals, who do not face ridicule or loss of funding if a trial doesn’t work out. I run into the same thing with Tropic universities, with much of the research done and risk taken by poor tropic farmers rather than academia or government organizations. The staff at the field station and the researcher from back East are bowled over by the results of the orchard.

I’m thankful to Tom for both the visit to the orchard, and also to the load of scionwood for our Uganda nursery he generously granted. DWN in general has been hugely supportive of the Africa nursery project, and I’ve freely shared the results of our low chill trials and recommendations for new varieties for their lineup.

[PlowAndPantryHomestead]

This is great info. I live about half an hour away from Irvine and there are some apples I'd love to grow but thought there was no way I could do it.

[mizzlemoonglade]

Thanks for this info. I would imagine some varieties though wouldn't tolerate high heat as well, which isn't a problem in California as opposed to here in Texas. I've also heard that high chill varieties can be grown in low chill areas that are also higher in humidity. Unfortunately it's drier here than the Californian coast. However next winter I'll be getting five or so heirloom apple trees, more as an experiment than anything else. I'll have to see.

[nataliechastain]

I'm a backyard tree grower. I planted yates. They're 1000 chill hours. I'm in North Georgia zone 7a. Some sites say we're now zone 8a now. We only get about 150 chill hours. The yates apple is supposed to be a tried and true apple for the southeast. My red haven peach produced like crazy this year. They're 900 chill hours. This makes chill hours really confusing. I also planted sweet cherries just to see. I planted rainer, stella, about to plant lapins cherry. I've also had gala apple for 8 or 10 years. This is the first year she's produced, and it didn't produce well. I'm going to plant some low and high chill hour nectarines and see which ones do better. I thought the lower the chill, the more likely to bloom early and get killed by late frost. I've always bought later chill stuff. We get BAD late frost here.

[johnmcneill]

Hi Tom...Would be nice to see a follow-up pruning after fruit picking and then winter pruning. Maybe the OC Chapter of The CRFG could help 🤔😊😉

[dezertXer]

nice videos. thank you for what you do. my family has many of your trees.

[josemarquez]

l love this video. when are you making the follow up video on these apple trees?

[charlesburns]

I LOVE this idea. I can't wait to see more of your results. I've been doing some informal trials with some carefully selected (and uncommonly grown) varieties down here in Texas. Out of curiosity, how many of each variety did you elect to grow for your study (i.e. to confirm that your Gravenstein results aren't a fluke and to provide central tendencies for yields and other quality measures)?
Only one thing really bothered me all throughout the video (you mentioned it briefly): Too much bare soil.
Best wishes. Thanks for this exciting video! I hope you keep us up to date.

[sidagarden]

What is the cause of white stems? Thanks for nice apple tree garden 🌱🌱😍😍

[pibblesnbits]

Everyone watching this should note that the bark on a lot of these trees has been painted white for protection.

[glynnsea]

I'm doing a similar experiment on trying to grow high chill hour gooseberries in low chill southern California. This gives me hope.

[ShuvahHim]

Tom Spellman, sorry to change subject from your great view, but can you tell us where you got that great hat???? Thanks!

[blackkennedy]

When does honeycrisp bloom in socal? Could I pair it with a golden dorsett which blooms around spring from what I hear?