The California Tree Fruit Agreement (CTFA) is expecting an excellent crop of the state’s peaches, plums and nectarines, following a very cold winter.
“We’ve had a great start to the growing season,” said CTFA president Sheri Mierau. “Favourable winter and spring weather has created ideal conditions for peach, plum and nectarine development.”
The unseasonably cold winter delivered more than 1,000 chilling hours, meaning stonefruit trees have achieved the required dormancy coming into the spring bloom period and ample chill hours have resulted in a strong, uniform bloom.
“The weather is conducive to the development of fruit with high sugars and great taste,” said Mierau. “The warm, dry spring of 2007 resembles that of the spring of 2004, a year that delivered what was widely agreed to be the best-tasting California peach, plum and nectarine crop in 10 years. The industry believes it is on track for comparable fruit quality this season.”
While stonefruit crops in the Deep South of the US were struck by the Easter freeze, California’s fruit was untouched, with the weather over Easter in the state warm and sunny.
“We don’t have an exact start date for the crop yet, but we aim to bridge the gap between the end of the southern hemisphere peach, plum and nectarine seasons and the start of European supplies,” said a CTFA spokeswoman,
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