The Farm Beat: Just Chillin'

The wet season is off to a nice start, and so is the cold season. I’m not talking about sniffles. I’m talking about “chilling hours,” which are a measure of the cold weather that benefits deciduous fruit and nut trees during winter. Chilling, defined as 45 degrees or lower, keeps the trees in a dormant state. Too many mild days could prompt them to produce buds too early, putting them at risk of damage from late-winter frost. Peaches, apricots, cherries, apples and walnuts are among the crops that need a lot of chilling hours if they are to produce in high volume in late spring and summer. They are getting plenty so far, according to a UC Davis web site that tracks dozens of stations around the state. From Nov. 1 through Tuesday, the Modesto station accumulated 454 hours below 45 degrees. That’s roughly half of what many peach varieties need over the chilling season, which ends Feb. 28. The total to date is the most in at least seven years. It has been as low as 290 hours in 2003-04. It’s still a long way from the warm summer days when we’ll be biting into these fruits, but it’s nice to know the bare trees are doing well this winter. Speaking of which, the freezing temperatures early last week were not bad enough to damage the winter citrus crop in the south valley. Good thing. I covered ag there during the 1999 freeze, and it was devastating to the thousands of people who find winter work in the groves and packing houses. I’ve heard that a brief brush with frost actually makes the fruit sweeter, a nice outcome for growers who survived this month’s scare.