North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Rodney Eveland" <reveland@collinscom.net>]

I found a site that says there are some sweet cherries grown in Maine.
See the Question and Answer.
http://www.foodandfarms.com/learn/faq_indiv.asp?Page=1&ID=64

Also does anyone grow Balaton Tarts on your island? I found two
websites that state Balaton is not as hardy as Montmorency and should
be grown on sweet cherry sites, so if someone is growing Balaton
perhaps you've "found" your sweet cherry sites.

http://www.maes.msu.edu/nwmihort/balatongrow.html

Note that in the below abstact they don't mention the rootstocks their
trees were on and if reports on Gisela®5  are correct, it imparts more
winter hardiness than commonly used rootstocks. You are our "pioneer
in Maine" so be sure to tell us when you get a crop, or lose your
trees.

Balaton is more susceptible to winter injury than Montmorency, and in
fact, it behaves more like some sweet cherry varieties in this regard.
Therefore, it is critical to select sites that would be good for sweet
cherries or peaches. Take care to develop scaffolds limbs with wide
crotch angles which acclimate more quickly in the fall as opposed to
narrow crotch angles. Plan to paint trunks and lower scaffolds with
white latex paint.

In addition, although Balaton tends to bloom a day or so later than
Montmorency, the buds begin development earlier than Montmorency and
therefore are more susceptible to cold temperatures in certain
situations. For example, due to the very warm temperatures in late
February and early March this past season, Balaton flowers were
phenologically more advanced than Montmorency flowers when the
freezing events occurred. As a result, Balaton and Montmorency had 56%
versus 32% pistil/flower death, respectively, based on data from MSU's
Clarksville Horticultural Experiment Station (CHES).

http://www.glexpo.com/abstracts/2003abstracts/cherry.pdf