Picking Fruits for Your Microclimate - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats.

Picking Fruits for Your Microclimate

A micro-climate is basically the weather patterns that hit your specific geography. So, for example, in Palos Verdes where I live, uh, the micro-climate on the east side of the hill is vastly different than the micro-climate on the east side of the hill where they get a lot more fog coming off the ocean. If you can't find an expert that will tell you exactly what works best... , is try something. If it doesn't work this year, try something different the next year. In southern California, for example, the micro-climate here doesn't get very many chill hours and it's very important to find low chill variety of trees that have a very short requirement for dormancy phase. If you grow varieties that are not low chill, you will not sometimes get any fruit at all, or, if you do get fruit it will be substandard, won't taste very sweet... . So, you need to talk to someone who knows about low chill or just specifically search out low chill, especially for trees.

In Massachusetts, the types of crops you can grow there are totally different. For example, blueberries do really well there, but, here you need to get low chill varieties of blueberries. So, in California, make sure you look for low chill varieties for your fruits. And, especially things like your fruit trees, blueberries... , strawberries... , things that do well in coastal climates. You have to specifically ask the grower, "Does this do well on the coast?" Uh, some things do better inland, for example, citrus likes to have a lot of heat during the day to get the fruit ripe and on the coast here we don't get a lot of heat. And, so, there's certain varieties that do better, uh, without very much intense... , intense heat. And that's when you have to talk to your University of California Extension Service, or, an expert like me to get an answer on exactly which varieties are those that do best on the coast.

So, basically, you need to handle your micro-climate by choosing varieties that either your Extension Service tells you should try, or, the nursery that's near you is recommending. Or, you can do it by trial and error. Just plant something. See if it works. If if doesn't, rip it out and next year try something that does work.