Growing apples in a med climate

"Low-chill" apples are considered to be those requiring less than about 450 hours per year of temperatures below 45 degrees F (7 Cent.). There is a lot of literature on this subject. Researchers at Gainsville, Florida, and in Acre, Israel, have had low-chill Apple breeding research programs for many years. Also in India, I think. Varieties are available that will reliably set fruit with less than 400 hours of chilling. In the 1970's, we grew in USDA Zone 9b "Anna" with "Ein Sheimer" and some of the Florida varieties whose names I forget now and these were available in the trade in the Southern U.S. in the 80's. Apples are self-infertile so varieties must be grown that will bloom at the same time. Anna is the best apple I have ever tasted but it has been years since we lost all our trees to a combination of fire blight (bacterial infection through the flowers and down the stem) and a fungus known here as "cotton root rot" that can only be stopped by acidifying the soil, an impossible task here. Even now I am nostalgic for an Anna apple and not just the complex taste but the texture too is both juicy and crisp -- but they lose flavor fast once off the tree and so I don't think they are commercial.

Robert Crane

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