Better Luck Next Year? The Lost Fruit Year of 2018

Have you had a rough year as a San Diego county fruit farmer? If you have, you are not alone. Stone fruits and pommes are having the worst year in recent memory, and perhaps the worst I can remember in four decades. Dreadful yields, terrible growth (some trees never quite emerged from dormancy and some still haven't hit their stride), pest problems, and the few fruits some of us have, seem to be eaten by hordes of rats, squirrels, and gophers that could have come from the story of the Exodus.

An additional meteorological frustration was the almost completely rain free winter. We were in a five year long drought punctuated by a single year with rain. Many raved about our "wet" year in 2016-2017, as though the flood gates of Heaven were suddenly opened. It was actually merely a normal year of rainfall. The rain totals of the winter of '17 and '18 were back to our new normal of drought and more drought. When we don't get enough rain, the ground never reaches the saturation point and the salts don't get leached from our soils. This is especially tough for growing avocados.

What beyond the drought made this year so darn bad? Well, it starts with chill hours. All deciduous fruit trees need a period of rest to fruit well. Various fruit trees need widely different amounts of chill to set fruit, and some need the chilly winter temperatures to even grow well. For a more detailed explanation about chill hours and their effects check this past article- http://socalurbanfarmer.blogspot.com/2016/04/chill-hours-we-dont-need-no-stinkin.html

Some deciduous trees need very little rest and few chill hours. Figs, pomegranates, and mulberries are examples of trees that need a mere 100-150 hours of chill to grow and produce well. On the other end of the spectrum, some cherries and apples need 800-1,000 hours of chill. They will never ever produce here.

Many of the popular new pluots and various other popular new fruits seem to fall in the 350-450 chill hour zone, but there are a number of really fabulous tasting stone fruits and pommes will do very well with 200-250 hours of chill. In many years, you will do fine with some of those middle zone chill need trees, but this sure isn't one of those years.

So, it was a bad year because we didn't get rain, didn't get the chill hours our deciduous fruit trees needed when we needed them, and there is one more factor that hit us really hard. We had no chill hours at all in November, December, or January, even in our county's coldest zones. Then in February we had a very unusual occurrence. We were hit with a hard freeze several weeks into February, just as trees were blooming, emerging from dormancy, and setting fruit. This next blow caused pollinated flowers to fall and damaged emerging buds. This set trees back very hard. Some have not yet fully recovered.

What is the takeaway? If you want to consistently get fruit from your stone fruits and pommes you can't go wrong by sticking to the extremely low chill varieties. It has been a great year for many of our low chill favorites: Anna apple hasn't missed a beat-still great yields, maybe off 15%; my absolute favorite tree, the Spice Zee nectaplum has smaller fruit this year and yield is down by maybe 30%, but there is still good yield; the new cherries Minnie Royal, Royal Lee, and 6GM25 all bore fruit-they will bear more as they mature and hit their stride; peaches such as Babcock, Eva's Pride, Mid Pride, Bonita, Snow Queen, and others did bear, but yields were down perhaps 50%, but still fruit to be had; Figs are super this year, so are pomegranates; low chill (150-250 chill hours) nectarines are also bearing, but yields are down by 50% or so.

All pluots, and almost all plums are a complete washout this year! Most of my trees have zero fruit, or just an odd fruit here and there per tree.

I love all the new exotic fruits we have access to these days, but this year it is only the tried and true, low chill performers that we've known for years which have given us any fruit at all. I'm sorry that 2018 is such a dreadful year. Take good care of your trees this growing season, maintain them well during the coming winter dormancy, and keep your fingers crossed for 2019. And if your tree selections disappointed you with small to no yields, consider adding some of the older low chill winners back into your orchard. Better luck next year.