Waking up the trees for Spring | February Orchard Report

The weather has been very promising for us over the past few weeks at our Cherry Orchard, here in California. In our January Orchard Report, we needed mother nature to bring us cool and wet weather to help our cherry trees fall into deep dormancy. Thankfully, we received just that!

This past month, it was time for us to wake up the trees from their dormancy. This ensures a uniform bloom and also allows us to get the cherries to you sooner in the year. We accumulated enough chill portions to apply an organic dormancy breaking material to the trees in late January. This dormancy breaking material acts as caffeine for the cherry trees and helps to wake them up in a similar way that a morning coffee does for us!

This year, we've been able to apply this material 15 calendar days earlier than last year. Which is a big deal! This means we could have beautiful ripe cherries ready for Mother's Day weekend, which is very exciting. It would be amazing to celebrate Mother's Day with families picking cherries in our Orchard!!

There are still so many variables ahead of us to know for sure, but we're hoping this weather continues in our favor.

At this time of year, in the cherry growing season, the buds on the trees are beginning to swell and are in the "first swell" and "side green" stage. The first two buds in the photo below are the stages our cherries are at currently. As the weeks go on, they will work through these stages before eventually blossoming and becoming delicious fruit.

Stages of bud development in the spring as trees from dormancy through bloom to post-bloom. (Photo courtesy of Washington State University AgWeatherNet)

We will need the temperate to stay above 25 degrees Fahrenheit during this time to avoid damaging the buds that will eventually become cherries. We will continue to update you on the progress of our cherries in a few weeks time, with our March Update. If you're interested in finding out more, you can read the progress of our Cherries over the last few months in our Orchard Reports.

On a more personal note, I wanted to share another exciting update that is happening here on the orchard. As you know, valentines day is nearly here, and love is certainly in the air at Lodi Blooms. I am super excited for Evelyn and my wedding in April! We've been busy behind the scenes getting everything ready for the wedding in a few months time. This is a photo of the beautiful bride to be, here at her bridal shower.

Lodi Blooms Wedding

4th Generation Farmer - James Chinchiolo