So do you think my cherry tree got 800 chill hours last year? Because that is what it is supposed to need to set bloom.
Not a chance.
Some of the new thinking on chill hours is that they reset if outside temperature is over 70 degrees. And you don’t need it freezing to set them you just need it down to 40 degrees.
So excluding the 70 degree reset I believe I got less than 300 chill hours here. If you include the 70 degree reset we got less than 100.
I don’t believe we understand in the least what mechanisms it takes to cause a tree to set bloom. So my recommendation to you is ….
Plant a tree and let it grow. And if it were me I would put a lot of compost around it. Another thought, instead of a fruitless mulberry you might plant a cherry. Or plum, or a fig, or a pear, or an Asian pear or a pluot, or a grapefruit, or a …. and stop worrying about whether the animals get some of it.
