Do fruit trees still ripen normally in unloaded chunks?

[The Wormlord]

Hello ! I've recently discovered a bounty of tropical fruit trees far south of my base (pomegranate, lychee, etc.) and I've been checking back periodically to see if they're ripe yet but it seems like the "days until ripe" counter doesn't change much. Am I simply not paying proper attention? Could it be something to do with the seasons further south? Or is it simply that the chunks are unloaded? Any help would be appreciated thank you

[The Wormlord]

Interesting discovery just made, it looks like all I had to do was close and reopen the world while in the chunks with the fruit trees and that bumped the progress considerably. Leaving this here now for anyone who is has this same conundrum

[Kiler_]

I thought I read somewhere (it might have changed), that the game will refresh timers when you revisit chunks. Reopening the world from inside the chunk would definitely force it to refresh.