Chilean advisors Carlos Tapia, Óscar Aliaga and Bruno Tapia respond to concerns and provide recommendations against the onset of winter dormancy in orchards.
This Thursday, May 2, at 9:30 PM (GMT-4) Smartcherry TV premieres “Winter is Coming”, a new episode that will be added to the successful section of our YouTube channel. On this occasion, specialists will analyze in the field the entry into dormancy of cherry orchards in the southern hemisphere.
“Dormancy, first of all, is a super important cycle that the plant or any deciduous fruit tree has to comply with to satisfy its annual cycle, therefore, we have to understand that the plant has to make the most of that period of dormancy; and as a calendar reference, this dormancy period goes from May 1 to July 31, from the point of view of the accumulation of cold hours, with the climate models that we work on,” explained Carlos Tapia, technical director of Avium.
Óscar Aliaga, advisor and consultant specializing in cherries and technical director of Only Cherries Consultores, will also be part of this new episode dedicated to the beginning of the winter dormancy of the plants: “We are in autumn, the month of April, almost the second half of April, naturally the leaves should have fallen; I remember years ago autumn arrived practically the first weeks of April with the frosts, and on the deciduous trees, which are the cherry trees mainly, 100 percent of the leaves should have fallen naturally on April. What is happening now? Climate change has made autumn disappear and the trees practically keep their leaves in April so we hope that the signs of autumn will begin to appear,” said the specialist.
“La Niña” phenomenon and accumulation of cold hours
“It is very likely that we will have a high rate of cold hours; dormancy, as we know, is a period of rest for fruit trees in which they must accumulate hours of cold, especially temperatures below 7 degrees, and given that this year there is a greater probability that the La Niña event will be present, that will generate clear skies, a lot of accumulation of cold hours, so there should be no problem in accumulating between 1,200 and 1,400 cold hours in the central zone of Chile,” anticipated Patricio González, Agroclimatologist at the University of Talca.
In addition, together with Bruno Tapia, Avium technical coordinator, our team toured a cherry orchard to evaluate leaf fall and analyze strategies to promote this process, which will be explained in tonight’s episode.
The new chapter is sponsored by UPL’s Nordox; Cogrowers; Corteva; ChemieAgro; AWS and Green Has.
Watch the preview:
