My "Romance series" cherries

Those roots look excellent. Good to see some small feeder roots along with the large roots. It may be coinsidence but trees that I’ve planted with small feeder roots always seem to do better than trees that just have those large carrot shaped roots.

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I had to figure out my new picture software to resize. These are not the best pictures but you can get and idea of what they look like.


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I have them about twelve foot from the other rows, and ten foot apart. I will have to get a trailer load of horse manure and top dress my other ones and put wood chips on top of that.

You guys getting these yuge RS plants are setting me up for a letdown when I get my little shrubs from Honeyberryusa. Oh well, as long as they take and grow. Three more weeks and we’ll be awash in new trees and fruit bushes!

I purchased six from Honey Berry Usa last year. They were all about eight inch plugs might have had a twelve. My Crimson Passion grew the best to about three foot tall. The top got pruned by deer so it’s about two foot tall maybe 27". My carmine jewels grew to about 16" and one got pruned by the rabbit to a foot tall. My romeo is a foot tall with lots of branches coming from the ground. My Juliet from last year died then grew a new shoot that’s about a one foot whip!. I planted the three CJ & Juliet sideways with only a third sticking out of the ground. Romeo I planted deep past three or four branches to make a multi trunk bush, and the one that grew best CP I planted to the crown just like you would a tree. They say deep planting and sideways planting may stunt the first years growth but promotes suckering. It’s better in droughts too. I’m curious to see how they do this year. The two Juliet’s I just planted to the crown straight up.

I thought about that, but they will grow and these things take a while to fruit. Bet yours fruit the same year ours do, if we get a year early it will be a very small harvest. My experience is the plant has to be so big, and yours will catch up quickly. I doubt you will lose much if any time.

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Did you use soil with nutrients, or like a seed starter mix? I took some cuttings last fall of dormant wood and stuck them also in pots, they have been buried under snow all winter. Hoping some root and grow come warmer weather, but Im not too hopeful…

You know I don’t. I do like using sterile soil with seeds, I’m switching to coir, and will make my own starter mix in the future. I used regular soil, well soil I make. I have so many plants, I need to make my own soil, only way to afford it.
I have it under a very warm lights, and the pot has a heating pad under it too. Also has a gallon plastic bag over it to keep the humidity at 100%. Those things are the key to getting roots. Most likely though it will not work. I was thinking if I get a sucker, I’ll go back over Scott’s and take more cuttings to graft.

What kind of lights do you use? If you have any interest in LED, I build my own lights and could point you in the right direction… Here are some of my indoor plants from a week ago. Getting quite a few cucumbers already and some small peppers growing too. Plants were started about a month ago. Id say you might be better off with bottom heat and no light at first, keeping the tops cooler, at least thats how I have had good luck rooting grape cuttings.

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I use T5 lighting, one fixture is not an HO but a VHO, and throws out the lumens, and heat. The door was closed and it’s at least 80F in there. I have no more room else I might go that way! I’m happy though with the lights I have. Figs grow fine under them, I could keep them inside all year. I have another 4 foot 4 lamp fixture where I keep herbs there in the winter.

Nice, we cant do figs up here… Problem I have with my LED lights is they dont produce enough heat during the winter, but they are good on electricity, those 4 cobs are pulling about 220watts at the plug and stuff is growing gangbusters. I have a nutrient issue tho, tried my hand at super soil for the cucumbers and its ‘off’ I guess, the peppers just have osmocote plus and they are doing great tho, KISS I guess for next grow…

That’s a huge plus, and the heat is not always wanted. Having both would be ideal for me. Right now though I have so many projects my head is swimming. I may talk to you about it next year.

No bulbs to replace is pretty sweet also, 50,000 + hours with high lumen maintenance compared to old tech.

The VHO lamps are new tech, but that just makes them expensive and hard to find too.
7,200 lumens each, times 4 bulbs. Regular T5 are 5K lumens, my other fixture is a regular T5. I like both. I also have a 2 lamp 2 footer I use to start seeds, then they go under these lights.
I’m also have some nutrient problems with some peach seedlings, not really bad, just unsure why? I have some pH test strips coming in this week, and I’ll check pH of soil, it may be the problem. The middle plant is doing best, and will be planted out. I did notice the problems after I stuck them outside, so I may have burned them a touch, the wind is helping strengthen them up. As soon as freezing weather is over, they will be staying outside.

My puny little Romeo is starting to show some green on the buds. I noticed this morning after taking stock of the orchard after last nights storm. Eeek! Well, they are north hardy, so I’m hoping it survives the next few weeks.

Still 3 ft snow drifts in my back yard here in ND… No green in sight! I planted about 100 carmine jewel seeds in my garden last fall, under about an inch of soil and covered with some straw. Will they survive and grow like this? I shoulda try cold stratifying some, but didnt think of it in time. Anyone know how close seedlings are to the original in these cherries? Im guessing not very…

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Me and a few friends ordered a case of these to replace the lights in our garages. They are very nice and bright and relatively cheap, about $10/4ft fixture. I saved a few to try to use in my shelves but I havent hooked them up yet.
http://www.dhgate.com/product/double-row-led-t8-tube-4ft-28w-8ft-72w-7200lm/385765616.html#s1-0-1b;searl|2667950938
(http://)

As for growth rates, that probably varies with climate, soil, etc., but here’s how mine have done in zone 3a. All photos taken in May, but sometimes early in May, sometimes late May, it varies year to year.

May 4, 2011. The cherries were planted in almost this same order in the garden, but Juliet and Romeo are reversed in the garden, ie from left to right they were planted as Romeo, Juliet, Cupid, Carmine Jewel.

May 27, 2012. I don’t have a pic of the entire row for this year, just individual bushes. This is Carmine Jewel.

May 19, 2013.

May 28, 2014.

May 6, 2015. Darn those spring snowstorms!

May 4, 2016. It was an early spring last year.

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I bet your seeds will sprout. I spit a bunch of sweet cherries into a coffee can one year and left them outside all winter not even trying to germinate them. Once the snow melted I picked that can up and they all had sprouted! These bushes have been made from different cherry tree crosses so you get a bunch of different trees similar to what you have or the parent trees. They tell you how they mixed them in the link I posted. The only one I remember is a Mongolian cherry, and maybe some kind of Russian cherry but I would have to read that again.

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They grew thousands of seedlings out that were a mixture of many flavors sour sweet bitter and even tall and short bushes then grew out a bunch more and picked the best from there. Your going to have slim chance of getting anything like the parent bush, but who knows you might just get that one they needed! They used many sour tree verities crossed with Mongolian, and some improved fruiting culture from Germany.

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