Sweet cherry and adaptation to mild winters

The response to marginal winter chilling accumulation of six sweet cherry c ultivars was evaluated as well as the use of hydrogen-cyanamide as a dorman cy braking agent to regularize the bud opening and its impact on fruitfulne ss and quality. Bud sticks were collected at a cherry orchard located in No rthwest Mexico, treated with cyanamide at 1, 2.5 and 3.5 % and forced to sp rout. Based on the results, a dose of 2.5% of cyanamide was selected to tre at groups of trees on two dates and with single and double treatments; cvs. Bing, Van and Stella showed a positive response to mild winters and dorman cy breaking procedure being reflected on yield and good quality. 'Hedelfing en' and 'Emperor Francis' cultivars seems to be moderately affected by wint er chilling reduction and 'Sam' cultivar had a very poor adaptability to su ch conditions and did not respond to cyanamide treatments.