For the fourth consecutive year, Avium's technical team has made available to the industry a complete report on the Evolution and Comparison of Chilling Hours (CH), 2023-24 season. This document includes the chilling hour graphs for the current season, as well as the HF accumulation curve for the 2022-23 season and the average for the last eight years.
The report will be updated weekly and will be available for free on our platform. This time, the data is updated to May 13.
Why are HFs important?
Between May 1 and July 31, cherry trees accumulate chill hours, an essential factor in the reproductive cycle of this fruit species and also of other deciduous trees. Each variety of cherry tree requires a different amount of chill hours, which help the plant to make available the reserves it stored during post-harvest, in order to achieve its productive potential in terms of quantity, quality and condition of the fruit.
For a correct accumulation of chill hours, cherry plants must have begun their physiological dormancy stage marked by the fall of 50 percent of their leaves (yellow leaf = fallen leaf); this scenario should occur, ideally, at the end of April or beginning of May, which is when the accumulated chill hours begin to be counted; if this condition does not occur naturally, it will be necessary to resort to certain strategies to accelerate the process, which are detailed in the article. «Post-harvest and acclimatization phase to the dormant period in cherry cultivation».
It should be noted that each variety has a different chilling hour requirement, according to its needs, based on the classic model of chilling hour accumulation, i.e. below 7.2ºC.
