Carmine Jewell's don't sucker much?

I was told Carmine Jewell’s don’t sucker much. They sent out plenty of suckers this year for the first time. Once they hit 6’ you can expect suckers so plant them accordingly. I am relieved to see suckers because the bushes are expensive and I love the fruit and growth habit. Before someone asks these are suckers not seeds coming up. You can trace the runners underground. I bring it up because for someone else it may be an unwelcome surprise

1 Like

For some reasons, my CJ leaf does not look like yours, rather, looks like the plant that is on the lower right side. I have two CJ, none of them sucker.

1 Like

The leaves on the CJ are beautiful almost leather like. Here is a picture of the mature bush leaves

1 Like

Yes, this the leaf my CJ look like

1 Like

The suckers grow vigorously with big leaves like that For the first couple of weeks. Here are the suckers from the first picture starting to look normal at the bottom. The fast growth is much lighter colored at first then turns deep green with smaller leaves

1 Like

they sucker like my evans, get too wide and tall, I guess I should of gave them more space, thought they would only top out at 6 or so feet.

1 Like

Kleckner I have heard good things about Evans cherries. In the north they are said to be the most popular cherry. They look more productive than carmine Jewell. Carmine Jewell is easy to pick and good quality which in this area that combined with resistance to disease and drought means it has a lot going for it.

My Carmine Jewell is about 3 years in ground now.

It never bloomed, but it sent about 10 suckers this year. I carefully removed everyone of them and gave some away. I also kept some in pots while they grow their own root system. I am getting impatient to get fruits from it! Please don’t mind the ugly grass !!

2 Likes

Yeah those suckers sucker…

2 Likes

Feed it heavy Jessica it’s going to take off soon! They typically wait to sucker here until they are 5’-6’ but who knows what triggers them to sucker. Could be excess nutrients, stress, etc that may trigger them to send out suckers.

1 Like

Clark, guess what, 5 years later my Carmine jewel suckers pop up all over the place within distance from 3’ to 15’ from the tree.

4 Likes

Your going to have lots of new bushes!

@IL847 by now I’m confident you have plenty popping up. @jessica4b you should have got some fruits but your heavier crop is coming soon maybe this year. Your dirt is similar to mine based on your grass. Heavy soil dwarfs things and slows them down but it won’t stop carmine jewell. @TheDerek how are yours doing? How were the seedlings turning out? @KlecknerOasis has Evans been doing well for you still? My thought is Bush cherries need pruned heavily every few years. Carmine jewell get to tall to pick here easily without a ladder but are to short to justify a ladder. If only people were 7 or 8 feet tall this would be a non issue.

1 Like

CJ in my backyard are turning into a big pita, suckers coming up everywhere. i let a few go, removed my first bushes that were crowding my apple trees. I’ve got a few seedlings out at my 40 acres but they aren’t producing fruit yet. these bushes are extremely drought tolerant I’ve discovered but growth slowes a lot. my parents have some in their back yard that are getting BIG. I should measure them this spring but we definitely need a ladder to harvest them. i wonder how large these bushes will get! they don’t seem to be slowing down much

2 Likes

@TheDerek

Not over 10 -12 feet tall in my opinion. That’s how tall mine are and they will be shorter soon.

2 Likes

Has anyone tried these in pots? @TheDerek knowing they are drought tolerant, I imagine they would be forgiving in a pot and that would eliminate excessive suckers… at least in ground.

Clark you are so right! Suckers pop up all over the yard. I have been digging them up and giveaway to friends. Strangely the suckers survive rates are low, most suckers died or didn’t leaf out. I attached a short sections of the main root when I dug them out. I dug them up while they were still in dorman

2 Likes

You can prop these cherries using root cuttings, with suckers ive been cutting them off low, near the first set of buds and burying the entire thing under the ground, so the top of the sucker is just an inch or so below soil level, this keeps them from drying out while they start forming roots. Ive noticed the sucker roots dont have many small roots in most cases, so I think they need a bit of time to start growing before they are exposed to the surface air maybe… I dont have GREAT success with suckers, but over 50% Id guess live.

3 Likes

I have and they do well. I eventually put it in the ground. It fruited 2 years in the container. Putting it in the ground has increased cherry size.

2 Likes

So right. The suckers I dug up don’t have small roots at all

3 Likes