This report covers conditions and observations made between Friday, February 19 and Sunday, February 21, 2016.

Taken in Stanislaus County, the first two photos for today’s report show the jacket and petal fall stages in the Nonpareil and Fritz varieties. The third photo shows the bloom stage in the Padre variety, also in Stanislaus County.

Inconsistent weather highlighted the weekend in the Northern San Joaquin Valley. Friday and Sunday were mostly sunny with highs in the mid 60s after morning temperatures in the low 40s with gentle breezes both days. Saturday saw overcast skies and cool weather until noon when the sun finally broke through and temperatures rose to the mid 60s. Bees got very little work done until the sun broke through Saturday, not venturing far from their hiver until the last few hours of sunlight. Friday and Sunday, bees were able to get around 6 good hours of flight.

All varieties have passed over their maximum number of flowers presenting for pollination in the central region. Bloom is winding down as petals are shedding. Flowers on the early blooming Sonora have under 20% of their flowers fully intact while over half of their flowers have no petals remaining. Nonpareil, Monterey, and California-type pollenizers have under half of their flowers fully intact. The Carmel cultivar achieved peak numbers of open flowers on Friday and began shedding petals quickly. Butte and Padre had their maximum number of open flowers on Saturday at over 80%. Petals are slowly beginning to shed on these cultivars.

Management of orchard floors continues as growers try to keep vegetation low to maintain warmer overnight conditions in case of frost. A second round of fungicide applications has begun as growers deem necessary.

By Brian Noeller