North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Rob Halgren <halgren@msu.edu>]

> John,
> Balaton was introduced to the U.S. by a professor at Michigan State 
> University and is being grown commercially in Michigan in a number of 
> locations some as far north as Traverse City, MI.(44.8 degrees North but 
> close to Lake Michigan).  These two web sites talk about growing Balaton in 
> Michigan.
>   http://www.maes.msu.edu/nwmihort/balatongrow.html  
>   http://www.maes.msu.edu/nwmihort/BALATON.html
>  
>
> Tom Volkening 

Although I would hasten to add that 'As far north as Traverse City' is a 
bit misleading.  They don't call it the Cherry Capitol for nothing. 
This region competes quite well with Washington State for total 
production.  The entire western side of Michigan gets quite a benefit 
from the very big heat sink to its immediate left (Lake Michigan).  I 
wouldn't use Traverse City's latitude as any sort of reference.  They 
can grow sweets up there through, several different varieties. 
http://www.maes.msu.edu/nwmihort/drkswtch.html

 The main problem with cherries (around here, in Michigan) is weeks of 
warm spring days followed by late frosts.  Trees bud out and look 
pretty, and then get whacked...  Proximity to the big lake gives you a 
buffer from frosts.  It is an imperfect buffer, and they lose all or a 
large portion of the crop on a fairly routine basis up in TC, and even 
where I am (originally) from, a couple hundred miles to the south in SW 
michigan.

A late frost usually doesn't have a major affect on the tree itself, so 
if you don't mind irregular cropping and you have marginal conditions, 
give it a try.  I hate it when people tell me what I can't grow... 
Maine's atlantic coast is probably a bit problematic.  Having only 
visited briefly, I'd wonder if you get enough heat in the summer.  I 
would be less worried about winter hardiness than sufficient light and 
heat in the growing season.

Have fun

Rob
--
Robert G. Halgren, Ph.D.
Bioinformatics Specialist
GTSF - Michigan State University
http://genomics.msu.edu
(517) 353-7236    -   halgren@msu.edu