ASHS 2025 Conference

RELEVANCE Sweet cherries (Prunus avium) have some historical production in the Four Corners area with renewed interest for fresh eating, baking, juicing and distilling. RESPONSE Six grafted cultivars were planted March 2014 as bare-root, 3-year old tree seedlings on a high mesa location at the NMSU Agricultural Science Center at Farmington at 5,640 feet above sea level (36°4’ N by 108° W). Cultivars ‘Bing’, ‘Skeena’, ‘Rainier’, ‘Benton’, ‘Santina’ and ‘Coral’ were grafted onto either Krymsk 5 or Krymsk 6 rootstock. Yield data was collected for 2019 and 2021 growing seasons. Trees were pruned during winter dormancy beginning in 2020 to control height. Lower yields in 2021 compared to 2019 are attributed to extensive pruning and to bird damage that was noticeably more impactful in 2021 compared to 2019. In all other years since planting, killing spring frosts reduced or eliminated flower production resulting in little to no fruit yield. When harvested, fruit sugar content (measured in °brix; the higher the °brix, the sweeter) ranged from 15.3° to 22.1° brix in 2019 and 13.3° to 24.6° in 2021. Sugar content is acceptable for any number of post-harvest fresh market to fermentation applications. IMPACT Cherry trees are among the first fruit trees to break dormancy on a high mesa site in Northwest, NM and have been prone to damaging spring frosts resulting in flower death and reduced fruit yields. When cherry have yielded, post-harvest metrics have favorable sugar content. Growers can expect to have non-bearing years related to spring frost risk and are advised to have cherry plantings as part of a diversified cropping system to lessen risk during non-fruitful years. PUBLIC VALUE STATEMENT The work is helping to support northwest New Mexico fruit growers.