Determining Bloom Timing in Orchards

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What causes bloom timing in orchards? The topic has been studied extensively but still there is a lot we don’t know. Dr. Maciej Zwieniecki is a Professor of Tree Physiology at UC Davis. He hopes a new study will help us better understand bloom timing by tracking carbohydrate reserves in trees all over the state.

Dr. Zwienicki… “We think that the plant can use this information to determine best time of bloom. It's like an internal clock for bloom time that is influenced by environmental conditions. So the goal of this research is to shift the study from the labs to treat the entire Central Valley of California as a big one lab. So we established collaboration with several hundred growers. They will send us samples of wood over winter and during summers to analyze for carbohydrates. And then we'll use new generation satellite data to make direct observations of bloom time for every orchard we study and not only on for every orchard that we study, but for every orchard in California.”

This large scale research project is made possible by a BARD grant, which is the U.S.-Israeli Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund.