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fruitnut_gw

Would you pay $1/cherry in March?

There's a guy in Spain, Oscar Ortiz, growing cherries in huge greenhouses. 165,000 lbs in 12.5 acres greenhouses which is a pretty good yield of 7 tons per acre. The fruit sells as high as $100 per pound!! Fruit is 17-20 brix. Mine runs 25-30 brix but harvest doesn't come until May/June.

I'm extremely impressed that he can harvest that early. He must be getting chilling in Nov and early Dec and then pushing them hard, probably by heating at night, and day if needed. I'm not impressed with the quality especially given that they are being touted as not only the earliest but the best cherries in the world.

I'm still in chill mode in my greenhouse mainly because I've had trouble with the cherry bloom in the past when chilling has ended about Jan 1. My setup is now at 1200 hrs Utah and will probably carry on thru January and ~1300 Utah hrs. If that doesn't give full bloom, well I don't know what will.

The guy in Spain is growing Brooks and Prime Giant. Brooks is listed at 400 hrs so that's part of his secret. I could see getting those very low chill cherries, 200-300 hrs, of Zaigers ripe in March in my setup if that's all I grew and had cheap heat to hold winter nights above 50F.

Here is a link that might be useful: Spanish greenhouse cherries

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