What are your chill hours?

[Gina]

I knew our local chill hours were low.. but they were even lower than I had thought. Less than 100 with some years 0 (yes, zero).

I googled my city's name plus chill hours. You can probably find one for your area.

Chill hours for California:
http://fruitsandnuts.ucdavis.edu/Wea...rs/?type=chill

[Darkman]

Supposed to be 450 - 550

[WillsC]

You can go to getchill.net and plug in your wunderground station ID that is nearest to you and get the hours. I have a wunderground linked weather station here on the property but all you really need is one close to you. Mine is:

Below 45 Model: 434 chill hours
Between 45 and 32 Model: 403 chill hours
Utah Model: -436 chill units
Positive Utah Model: 736 chill units
Dynamic Model: 18 chill portions

[n8b8s]

Thanks for the resource! Ithaca, NY was just rezoned from 5a to 6a, and I've been looking for chill hours for all of my fruiting plants. Luckily for some of my more delicate plants, everything is grown in a greenhouse

9/23/14-3/20/15:
Below 45 Model: 3140 chill hours
Between 45 and 32 Model: 1138 chill hours
Utah Model: 785 chill units
Positive Utah Model: 1084 chill units
Dynamic Model: 71 chill portions

[Inkfin]

Below 45 Model: 1076 chill hours
Between 45 and 32 Model: 997 chill hours
Utah Model: 745 chill units
Positive Utah Model: 1232 chill units
Dynamic Model: 39 chill portions

Can I grow Legacy that require 700+ chill hours? Our area Walmart is selling Legacy for $5.

[m5allen]

Tampa Bay, FL

Below 45 Model: 246 chill hours
Between 45 and 32 Model: 246 chill hours

No Ravens for me

[Gina]

Assuming you could find a place to get them, sure you could grow them. It has a chill of 300 - that's close enough.

My chill is less than 100 (probably averages about 50) and I grow many BBs with chills greater than that. About 300 is the cut-off for getting enough fruit to make it worthwhile.

[WillsC]

Mike,

The university is always conservative on the chill requirement and a lot of times end up lowering the chill recommendation after a couple years once more data from growers comes in. I would bet Raven would grow and fruit for you just fine.

[m5allen]

I got burned by the chill requirement on a Windsor. My Windsor was a really stout, healthy plant, but it would only produce a handful of berries every year. The berries were very large and tasted great, so this was a disappointment.

Windsor is listed as having a 300 chill hour requirement. So I don't touch anything with a higher chill requirement than "200-300" hours. If it says 300 hours, it probably won't work for me.

Now Raven is a little different because it is a newer variety and maybe there is still some subjectivity in the chill requirement. But lucky for me, I can't get Raven anyway, so I don't need to worry about it.

[Gina]

As Wills said, sometimes they adjust the numbers as more growing information is obtained. They recently adjusted Sweetcrisp from 300 to 200-300.

I've also been burned by trying to grow bbs with too high a chill number. More than once. But a couple hundred hours over seem to work for me.

Also, most areas have smaller environmental niches that can vary widely. Maybe Tampa Bay has more than one 'chill' area and you are in one of the warmer ones.


Just found this re Windsor.

http://www.extension.org/pages/29260...s#.VRQZAbt0wqQ

Variety: Windsor
• Chilling requirement: 400 hours.

[m5allen]

This is the link that uncle Wills showed me - this is where I get my blueberry variety info.

http://www.ffsp.net/varieties/blueberry/

This usually synchs up with UF data.

I just recently moved from St. Pete to Tampa and should get a few more chill hours now, so that should help.

[Gina]

That's one of my favorite sites for checking bb variety information. And dreaming.

Good luck with your selections. Sad to say, if I stayed with only the blueberries within my recommended chill hours, I'd be limited to maybe 2-3 varieties instead of the dozen or so that bear well here. Fortunately I also have enough space to experiment with things that might not work out.

edit: Agristarts, ( http://www.agristarts.com/index.cfm/...D/74/index.htm) another good place for varietal information, lists Windsor at 300-400 hours so I think you do have a bit more wiggle room.

[MSfiglake]

I've been looking for this, now thanks to ya'll i found it. Someone in my neighborhood has a weather station on wunderground, and it also pops up on accuweather on my phone

KMSCARRI3 Carriere, MS
Below 45 Model: 877 chill hours
Between 45 and 32 Model: 780 chill hours
Utah Model: 466 chill units
Positive Utah Model: 1094 chill units
Dynamic Model: 42 chill portions

[smatthew]

666 chill hours.
Devilishly cold.

[m5allen]

666 chill hours.
Devilishly cold.

With that stat, I would move.