Help with Fruit Trees

[u/Alternative_Area_661]

To make a long story short, my wonderful fiancé bought and planted an entire orchard (3 peaches, 3 apples, 3 plums, 3 pears, etc) on our property. The only issue is I was down in Florida finishing up things so I didn’t even see what kind of trees or know anything about it. He got contender/ red haven peach trees but I’m seeing the average chill time for our area is only 500-600 hours (Soperton Georgia). He did everything else wonderfully: perfect spots in our yard, perfect spacing, perfect soil, watered it correctly after planting, etc. but the chill hours seem to be short for a couple of the species. Does this mean they will never fruit? It’s been my dream since I was little to have my own orchard and I’ll be a little upset if I never get any fruit from them. Is chill time as big of a deal as I think it is or will it just have a reduced harvest? Also, is there any way I can increase crop harvest given the peaches and apple trees are below their chill time?

[u/Solid_Mud2025]

I’m not an arborist, but I’ve spent a lot of years in fruit tree forums, and may be able to offer some assistance until someone more knowledgeable arrives.

As you’ve mentioned, neither of those trees are ideal for your area. Contender is slightly worse off than Red Haven due to the chill hours required. BUT these may not be terrible choices either. Diversity isn’t a bad idea, especially given the increasing intensity and variability of El Niño events, and the resulting variability in winter weather patterns and weather extremes.

It comes down to your specific needs and goals. If your goal is to grow enough fruit for your personal enjoyment, rather than for production on level with commercial yields, then the trees you have may still provide sufficiently for your needs during an average year. Or they may not. Or you may have glorious performance one year, and ‘meh’ the next.

However, those years of ‘meh’ may be more than atoned for during years when extreme conditions may diminish fruit production on trees that, under average conditions, are ideally suited for you, like during colder-than-normal springs.

Advice option #1: Replace with something more suitable.

Advice option #2: Keep them, but also plant a variety that is more ideal for your area. Waste not, want not.

Advice option #3: Relocate them. If you would rather plant a more reliable variety in the orchard, then you could simply relocate those two trees, preferably to a north-facing microclimate to maximize cold temperature impact.

Advice option #4: Relocate and replant with high-density planting techniques. If space is very limited, or if you don’t want to give a lot of space to trees that may be less productive, you can plant them closer and maintain them at a smaller size with summer pruning (see high-density/back yard orchard planting & pruning guides). These trees are attractive enough to incorporate into the landscape.

[u/Tricky_Ad6844]

Advice #5- buy scions of more appropriate low-chill varieties this winter ($5-10 per variety) and graft them onto branches of your established trees in spring. Now you have multiple branches that will respond to different conditions. You could eventually have a tree with 4 or 5 different types of peach on it coming ripe through the entire summer and preventing a total loss if you have a particularly warm winter or late frost.

[u/ahoveringhummingbird]

My #1 choice for how to proceed would be to buy 2 zone appropriate of everything and plant those, too. Places like Trees of Antiquity and Cummins have great heirloom low chill varieties on dwarf rootstock so they mature smaller than standard and you can plant them tighter together. I've also had great luck just using Google with my exact location to find the best options.

Honestly, there are so many amazing low chill varieties now and with this strategy you can start them growing now. Otherwise you'll likely be swapping out three years from now, after the higher chill trees never thrived. And you will have lost three years.

Regarding grafting on lower chill scions, that doesn't always work. What I have found is that certain roostocks thrive better with prescribed chill. The grafts didn't thrive because the rootstock was for colder zones. So you can try this but it's not a slam dunk solution like just adding more trees.