University of Florida Plant Information Low-Chill Apple Cultivars for North Florida and North Central Florida

HS764

Relatively few cultivars of apples (Malus domestica L.) have been reported to be grown successfully in Florida. Northern apple cultivars, such as ‘Golden Delicious’, ‘Red Delicious’, ‘Gala’, or ‘Fuji’, are not exposed to enough low temperatures during Florida’s mild winters. Apple cultivars have what is known as a chilling requirement. Chilling requirement is the amount of cold temperatures during the winter required for normal vegetative and reproductive growth in the spring. The chilling requirement may be determined by the cumulative number of hours less than or equal to 45°F during the winter. Each hour is referred to as a chill unit. There are relatively few apple cultivars with a low enough chilling requirement to be successfully grown in Florida.

This document is HS764, one of a series of the Horticultural Sciences Department, UF/IFAS Extension. Original publication date December 2000.

1. Revised May 2019 and November 2022. Visit the EDIS website at https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu for the currently supported version of this publication.

2. Peter C. Andersen, professor emeritus; Muhammad A. Shahid, assistant professor, Horticultural Sciences Department, UF/IFAS North Florida Research

and Education Center, Quincy, FL; and Kevin Folta, professor, Horticultural Sciences Department; UF/IFAS Extension, Gainesville, FL 32611.