“Apples requre between 800-1000 chilling hours between 32-45 degrees in order to break dormancy and flower and fruit. They are unsuitable for areas with milder winters, as they will receive insufficient winter chill and will not fruit, but will slowly decline. Only a few varieties with very low chilling hours such as “Anna” and Ein Shemer with chilling needs below 400 hours can be grown in mild climates.”
Good thing apple trees can’t read, or this Dixie Red Delight might discover that we only get 250 chilling hours and it isn’t supposed to be fruiting. Then it would probably tell Bramley Seedling that this isn’t England and it should quit fruiting for us also. Ignorance is bliss sometimes, but truth and reality are a lot more fun.
The truth is the chilling hour needs of different apple varieties are not known and canot be speculated, and the only way to find out is to plant it somewhere warm and see what happens. Paragraphs like the one above are written by “experts” who are simply quoting other experts who quoted other experts, none of which have actually stuck the tree in the ground to see what happens. More often than not, the chilling requirement is much, much lower than anyone would have guessed. There may be other reasons not to grow it such as the fruit quality in the heat, but chilling hours should not automatically be one of them.
Apples and Oranges 