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California Tree Fruit Season by Season

Peaches, plums and nectarines are harvested during the summer, but growing them takes year-round effort. Check out what happens each season to learn more about how California peaches, plums and nectarines grow.

Winter : Late November through January

Even though there’s no fruit on the trees in winter, growers are still very busy tending to their orchards. As it becomes colder, the trees become dormant and growers start planning for the next year’s crop.

First, they prune the trees. Pruning strengthens the tree, and encourages it grow new fruitwood, on which blossoms and then the new crop of fruit will appear the next spring. Strong, healthy fruitwood will result in larger, sweeter peaches, plums and nectarines. Pruning also helps more sunshine reach the fruit, which will help the fruit grow better, and encourage splashes of red color on peaches and nectarines.

Also during the winter, some orchards are grafted. Grafting changes an orchard to a new variety without uprooting the trees. A “scion” of the new variety – a piece of wood that will grow to make up the top of the tree – is cut to fit into a notch on the base of the tree, which is called a rootstock. A perfect fit ensures that the tree’s nutrients will flow into the scion and help it grow into a branch. By the second year after grafting, the scions will produce a good crop of fruit of the new variety.

Finally, between December 15 and February 15, peach, plum and nectarine growers measure “chill hours” - how many hours the temperature is below 45 degrees. “Chill hours” are like sleep for the trees as they prepare for the next year’s crop, and the number of chill hours tells how good a rest they’re getting. Some varieties need as few as 350 chill hours; others as many as 900. A total of 800 to 850 chill hours is the desired minimum.

A good rest affects many things, including the springtime fruit set. In a good fruit set, most of the blooms will open and be pollinated about the same time, leading to most of the fruit being ready at about the same time. If there are not enough chill hours, the bloom will be spread out and harvest will also be spread out.

Spring : March – May

In early spring, the dormancy period ends, and trees enter the bud and bloom stage from mid-February through early March.

During bloom time, plum trees can be identified by their white blossoms. Peach and nectarine blossoms are both pink, and look identical on the outside. On the inside, a peach blossom has a fuzzy ovule and a nectarine blossom a smooth ovule, like the piece of fruit to come.

Once the trees bloom, pollination takes place and the pollinated blossoms start growing fruit. Peach and nectarine trees are self-pollinating. Bees pollinate plum trees, carrying pollen from one to another.

In April, when the fruit is about the size of an almond, growers thin the crop, removing all but the strongest pieces in order to grow the best-sized and sweetest-tasting fruit.

Summer : June – September

In summer, the orchards are humming with activity, as they’re irrigated, monitored for pests and pruned to optimize production as the fruit grows to maturity. Summer is peak harvest time.

Orchards are watched closely as peaches, plums and nectarines near harvest. Growers check the fruit day by day, waiting for the proper color, size and maturity to be reached for each unique variety that they grow. At harvest, mature California peaches, plums and nectarines are fully developed and ready to ripen successfully off the tree.

Each one of California’s more than 600 varieties of peaches, plums and nectarines has its own specific harvest time, which lasts for about ten days. When harvest arrives, the fruit is harvested from the trees by hand using totes or buckets. The mature fruit is carefully selected from the tree, piece by piece. A single orchard will often see at least three pickings over the course of a week to ten days so the fruit is harvested at just the right time. Once it’s picked, the fruit is taken to the packing facility where it will be prepared for shipping.

Fall : October – November

As the harvest begins to wind down, growers begin to evaluate their crop performance and start on autumn tasks, including controlling weeds, cleaning orchards and repairing irrigation systems.

In October, late varieties of peaches and nectarines are still being harvested. Some plum varieties are harvested as late as November.