Yeah I have CJ and the taste is fantastic, but the cherries are small. CP doesn’t produce well, at least at first, shows little promise. Romeo and Juliet seem the most logical to try. If I started over i would go with them. I don’t have room to add Romeo, and don’t want to pull Carmine Jewel. I do have Juliet. I think these cherries could put the traditional tart cherries out of business.Much better color, easy to grow, small size for production amount.
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From my 3 year old Juliet’s to my 7 & 8 year old CJ’s the blossoms are popping - the 5-year old CP’s are showing leaf only, and precious little of that! I think if they do not make at lest a blossom this year I’ll get rid of them.
I was initially intrigued by Romeo, but it was my understanding that they were the last to ripen. I think Don indicated they were not last for him however. But I’ve been hit by SWD on stuff that ripens later so anything that I can harvest early is good I think. If I pull the two CP’s I may even replace them with a couple more Juliet’s, but IDK for sure.
I want to see how they do over the long haul in our climate. I see some canker on one of my 8-year CJ’s already.
Dr. Boors talked about renewal pruning by taking off major branches at year 5-6 I think? I’ll have to look back at the email, but I kinda wish I’d have tried that then. As it is, my older bushes are looking sparse in the interior this year. Add to that I pruned off 3-4’ and it may be an unremarkable year this year, but they often surprise me!
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IL847 was kind enough to meet me in the Chicago 'burbs one day and gift me a Carmine Jewel she dug out at her garden due to too much shade.
TheDerek sent me a couple sticks of Juliet.
I am anxiously waiting for the carmine jewel to wake up and start growing this year, to see how it does, and am planning on “nurse grafting” Juliet to one of the CJ stems until it grows enough wood I can layer, tip-root, graft, or hardwood/softwood root a freestanding Juliet so I have both CJ and Juliet.
Excited to try them, but it is a hurry up and wait situation, of course…just like my apples are finally starting to throw a bunch of flowers, 2 yrs after grafting. (I am glad to see the flowers, but man, is it going to hurt to strip them off 3-5’ trees so they don’t runt everything out…)
Hi Jerry,
Could you please share the suggestion from Dr. Bob Bors about renewal pruning. I love to know it so I could get it right from early on. Thanks.
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I pulled one of my cp last week. I should probably pull my last one also. They r a dud! Put something that actually produces in that spot.
Here is the last paragraph from his email dated 7/1/14:
For best longevity one should grow the cherries as bushes with multiple trunks. Using renewal thinning you should get rid of a trunk or two every year or two to allow new ones to form or let suckers in the row come up to replace them. Our original seedling rows are 22 years old and are still alive and fairly healthy. On a severe -50C winter, we didn’t lose trees but we lost the oldest trunks of most trees. Specifically it was those branches that had born fruit for many years and were hardly making any growth. Perhaps a trunk should be removed somewhere around 7 years old? Maybe 10? I’d think the bushes could go on for many decades.
So if I interpret that correctly, you’d remove a trunk or two every year or two after maybe year 7 in the life of the bush.
Again, my CJ’s have been heavy croppers the past couple years but at this point the oldest/biggest bush (at least one of the 3) looks fairly barren on the lower interior branches. That is not something I’ve ever noticed before to any great concern level anyway. But I do wonder if a combination of heavy bearing and maybe lack of sun have been contributing factors. It just can’t be our Iowa winters on these zone 2 bushes. I’ve not had any winter-kill to speak of on CJ’s, but the CP’s may have. Though on the CP’s it could also be a byproduct of a weakened immune system or something. I’ve thought for some time that the CP’s suffered from a vascular problem, but they my well have never recovered from the cherry leaf spot they each got a couple years ago.
Anyway, hope this helps.
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Thank you, Jerry. Dr. Bors’s suggestion is similar to the KGBtraining system. It makes sense. Will keep this in mind.
I put a Monty cherry bud on one of my CP leaders yesterday. That way if CP doesn’t produce it will have something that does, and if it does so be it.
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I confess to barely understanding grafting but would love a pic of that!!
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My first crop on CJ . Really loaded . It has bloomed very lightly last 2 years but never held them . Guess it is ready to hold a crop now .
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I decided to replace Crimson Passion(cannot afford unreliable producer in my small yard) with Juliet. So in order not to loose one more season I ordered Juliet now. Plan was to plant it in a pot, and in late fall transplant Crimson Passion to my neighbor yard and plant Juliet on its place. When I received my first two bushes from Honeyberry USA 5 years ago they were tiny, in 4 inch pots. So when I read that Juliet will be 2-3 feet tall, I was pleased. I received it today. What I didn’t realized is that it will be 3 feet tall pruned! Unpruned I suspect the monster was 5-6 feet tall. The roots are thumb thick. It didn’t fit ANY pots available, including large tub from HD. I had to make in-ground pot for it, luckily my tiny apple didn’t grow big roots yet and I was able temporary fit Juliet next to it.
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I got a chance to look at my remote nursery location today in my dad’s garden.
I am really surprised to see that my Romeo USask cherry bloomed this year. It is only it’s 2nd leaf for me.
Romeo in the foreground and white gold in the background.
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Juliet grows like a beast. Mine is very vigorous. I planted it with CJ last spring and they were the same size. Juliet is now twice the size of CJ.
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@Levers101 My Romeo was twig when I bought it from HBU. It is flowering in it’s third year right now after Juliet and CJ. It’s Only about 28" tall.
@speedster1 My juliet’s from HF Had trunks twice the caliber of any of my two year old bushes from HBU. They are in their second year and growing well also. One is about five foot tall and the other is about 42". The smaller one is loaded with cherries but the flowers are still falling off so who knows how those will do. The stems are still dark green so They look good as do my other bushes that flowered.
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just received and planted a carmine jewel and juliet from HBU. both about 3ft with nice roots. put them in mounds in my yard. hopefully this way they will fare better than my apples i planted in my clay rocky soil. they were just staring to leaf out. now a 2 yrs wait!
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I have a bonus sucker plant from the Juliet I just planted last year. These Juliet’s sure are vigorous! These are the two I planted last spring. One is over five foot tall already.
The bigger bush in the back in the first picture is the one that suckered.
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i have 2 juliets and a carmine jewel i put in this spring. all are growing nicely. all 3 from honeyberry usa were 3ft tall when i got them. hopefully i get some cherries to taste in a couple years! i wouldn’t mine a few suckers. 
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Ya I don’t mind a few suckers either. They usually don’t sucker till they are a few years older from what I’ve read. I was very surprised to find it. I would like to give a bunch to my sister. My oldest bushes are on their third year. I bought three CJ, one Juliet, one CP, and one Romeo from HBUSA. They are smaller than the two Juliets I bought last year from HF. I see they have options now to get bigger bushes. This sucker is not much smaller than the bushes I bought three years ago.