When most people think of Florida fruit, their mind goes straight to mangos and citrus. But May on the Suncoast holds a surprise for the adventurous home grower: stonefruit season. In a year like 2026 — when our colder-than-average winter put a damper on mango bloom — peaches and plums are absolutely loaded. That’s the beauty of building a diverse food forest: when one crop struggles, another shines.

Understanding Chill Hours: The Key to Stone Fruit Success

Chill hours are the hours of temperature below 45°F and above 32°F that accumulate during a tree’s dormancy. Certain deciduous fruit trees need a minimum number of these units for buds to break properly and flowering to occur. Plant the wrong cultivar here and you’ll get erratic blooms, poor fruit set, or nothing at all. Most inland Sarasota County locations (more than ~5 miles from the Gulf) reliably accumulate at least 100–150 chill hours per season — enough for the best low-chill cultivars to produce heavily. Inland areas such as North Port on average receive 252 chill hours. Our extreme coastal areas fall shorter and aren’t ideal for stone fruit. If you live within a couple miles of the ocean and are located in an urbanized heat island, you will have significantly less.

The single best thing you can do for success: plant stone fruit on the north side of a building or tree line. Remember the #1 Principle of Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ is Right Plant, Right Place! With the winter sun low on the southern horizon, a shaded location stays cooler longer each morning, extending the window of chill hour accumulation. As the equinox approaches and they flower and leaf out, the sun will be rising above them providing them adequate overhead sunlight. Other planting considerations, stone fruit need well-drained soil and good air circulation to thrive in Florida’s humid climate.

One additional trick worth knowing for the marginal-chill grower: kaolin clay can be sprayed on the trunks of dormant stone fruit trees during the winter months to help boost effective chill accumulation. This natural clay heavily used in organic farming has many benefits for pest pressure, drought stress, and even chill hour accumulation! Here’s the science — on sunny winter days, bark and wood tissue absorb radiant heat and warm above the ambient air temperature, which means the tree may not be “feeling” the chill the thermometer is recording. Kaolin clay, a fine white mineral powder mixed with water and applied as a full-canopy spray, reflects that solar radiation away from the wood, keeping tissue temperatures closer to true ambient and allowing more of those cold hours to actually count. Applications should begin in late November, covering the entire trunk, and be reapplied after significant rain events through late January.

Research on pistachios in California showed kaolin-treated trees accumulated meaningfully more chill portions than untreated trees during warm, sunny dormant periods — and leafed out later, a sign of better rest satisfaction. It’s not a silver bullet, but on a warm winter when you need every hour you can get, it’s a legitimate tool for the dedicated Suncoast stone fruit grower. It’s not a silver bullet, but for the dedicated Suncoast stone fruit grower trying to maximize every cold hour, it’s a legitimate organic agricultural tool — and one I’ve been reaching for more and more lately for pest control, drought stress reduction, and now chill hour boosting. The benefits keep stacking up!

Peaches: Florida’s Stone Fruit Stars

UF/IFAS’s stone fruit breeding program, active since 1952, has produced genuinely exceptional low-chill peach cultivars. The traditional workhorses — ‘TropicBeauty,’ ‘Flordaprince,’ and ‘Flordaglo’ — are melting-flesh types that need around 150 chill hours and have served Florida growers well since the 1980s. But the newest UF releases set a higher bar better suited for the Suncoast region of Florida.

‘UFBest’ & ‘UFSun’ — The New Gold Standard

Both cultivars require only 100 chill hours and represent a significant upgrade over their predecessors. They are non-melting-flesh, clingstone peaches — firmer and longer-lasting on the tree than the older melting types, making them ideal for home growers who want a harvest window.

‘UFBest’ (released 2012) produces large fruit with nearly 100% bright red skin over deep yellow flesh. It retains firmness at full flavor for a week on the tree — remarkable for a peach. The tree is highly vigorous with a semi-spreading habit and showy pink flowers. ‘UFSun’ (released 2004) is the proven benchmark: medium-large fruit, 50–60% red blush with darker stripes, heavy annual yields, and a track record stretching over two decades in Florida orchards.

When I visited an orchard of these two, the production was jaw-dropping — branches bowed with fruit. Both are self-fertile and should be grafted onto ‘Flordaguard’ nematode-resistant rootstock; always confirm this when purchasing.

Plums: The Right Cultivar Changes Everything

UF’s Gulf series plums — ‘Gulfbeauty,’ ‘Gulfblaze,’ ‘Gulfrose,’ and others — are high-quality Japanese plums (Prunus salicina) with disease resistance built in. But ‘Gulfblaze’ needs ~250 chill hours and ‘Gulfrose’ needs ~275, accumulations the Suncoast only gets in exceptional cold and long winters. At the orchard in North Florida I visited, branches were literally snapping under the fruit load — beautiful production, but not something I’d stake on our typical chill accumulation. Northern Florida, yes. Suncoast, no. We have planted a ‘Gulfrose’ plum in our Food Forest and it set a handful of fruit this year. But the hefty chill hour requirements are something to take note of before heavy investment down here.

Plums for South Florida?

‘Scarlet Beauty’ is a commonly available cultivar with history rooted in our region — literally. Developed by nurseryman Ronald Lambert of Wauchula in neighboring Hardee County, who discovered the plum on a trip through Alabama, it has become the best plum to grow in south Florida. Needing exceptionally low chill hours and no cross pollination, traits most other Japanese plums lack, this plum produces in abundance yearly.

It’s a medium-sized, early-blooming Japanese plum with bright red skin and scarlet-streaked flesh, great flavor, and very heavy bearing characteristics. At 150 chill hours for optimal production — with good dormancy break even under 100 hours — it’s perfectly suited to Sarasota County. It’s self-fertile (rare for Japanese plums), but produces even more with cross-pollination.

We also have several native plums worth planting!

Chickasaw Plum (P. angustifolia) erupts in fragrant white blooms before it leafs out each spring, serving as a host plant for the red-spotted purple butterfly and a vital early pollinator resource. The tart, wildlife-beloved fruits are excellent for jelly. Flatwoods Plum (P. umbellata) puts on a similar cloud-white show in late February and feeds an equally impressive list of wildlife — deer, bears, raccoons, and many birds.

Their fruit won’t rival ‘Scarlet Beauty,’ but that’s not their role. These native plums are keystone plants: early-season pollinator anchors, wildlife food sources, and living habitat.

Nectarines

The only nectarine worth mentioning for our area is ‘Sunbest’, which unfortunately requires 225 chill hours — a threshold most Suncoast locations won’t meet in an average year. Plant if you absolutely love the fruit btu you will need to try every trick and tip referenced to eke out the chill hours. Other cultivars only need more and more chill hours.

Final Note

Plant to the north of a structure or tree line, in well-drained soil, prune with intention — and you’ll be picking juicy, tree-ripened peaches and plums come May. In a cold winter like this year, when your mango harvest falls short, your stone fruit will pick up the slack. Redundancy through biodiversity. That’s the food forest philosophy in action!

Resources

• UF/IFAS Stone Fruit Page: https://hos.ifas.ufl.edu/stonefruit/
• UF/IFAS Stone Fruit Cultivars: https://hos.ifas.ufl.edu/stonefruit/varieties/
• UF/IFAS Growing Plums in Florida: https://ask.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/HS250
• UF/IFAS Florida Peach & Nectarine Varieties: https://ask.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/MG374
• UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions Peaches Page: https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/edibles/fruits/peaches/
• Growing Peaches in South Florida: A Peach of an Idea from Fairchild Botanic Garden: https://fairchildgarden.org/visit/a-peach-of-an-idea-for-south-florida/
• UF/IFAS Native Chickasaw Plum Document: https://ask.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/ST504
• UF/IFAS Stone Fruit Resources: https://hos.ifas.ufl.edu/stonefruit/resources/

4