Fruit AOE Bud Stage Reference -- Stone Fruit

Stone fruits are all the members of the genus Prunus, cherries and their allies.
They all have a single hard pit surrounding the seed in the center of the berry. Below are the varieties that are used to track the development of these fruit during the growing season. These are linked to other pages with descriptions of the growth stages used to track fruit development. Below that is another table with a generalized discription of fruit growth throught the season. This is useful if you do not know the meaning of terms like popcorn, shuck split and pit hardening.

Bud Stage	Description	Picture
Dormant	No swelling visible
Bud Swell	Swelling buds becomes noticeable and no green tissue is visible.
Side Green Green Side	Green or white tissue is visible on the sides of the bud.
Bud Burst	Also called "Green Tip" or "Tight Cluster" the top of the bud has opened and the individual flower buds are visible. Cherry and plum fruit buds have multiple flowers.
Early White Bud	The flower buds continue to develop. The buds open and the individual flowers separate. The white petals are visible.
White Bud Pink, in Peaches	This is the stage just before bloom. It is sometimes called "Popcorn" just before the flowers open because the folded over petals of the unopened flowers look like popcorn.
First Bloom	When the first flowers open.
Full Bloom	All or most of the flowers on the tree are open.
Petal Fall	When the petals are falling off the tree.
Shuck Split	When the growth of the fruit splits the shuck. The shuck is formed from the floral cup
6 to 21 mm Fruit	Refers to fruit diameter in millimeter (a millimeter is the thickness of a dime, 25 mm = 1").
1.0 inch to 3" Fruit	Refers to fruit diameter in inches
Pit Hardening	Not really a visible stage this is when the pit of the fruit becomes hard. This is tested by trying to cut the fruit in half.
Straw-colored Fruit	The ground or background color of the fruit changes from green to yellow.
Coloring Fruit	The fruit color changes from yellow to red.
First Harvest	First picking of ripe fruit, if there are multiple picking as in peaches, plums and apricots for fresh market.
Harvest	The fruit is ripe and ready to harvest! General Harvest (multiple pickings) of ripe fruit.

Fruit	Tart Cherry	Sweet Cherry	Apricot	Peach	Plum
Variety	Montmorency	Hedelfingen	Goldcot	Red Haven	Stanley

Fruit AOE Bud Stage Reference -- Stone Fruit

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