Searching for Hard to Find Varieties for Next Year

General Fruit Growing
#21

I have had 3+ kinds of bush cherry (including at least Carmine Jewel, Crimson Passion, and Korean bush cherry within 30’ of it) and at least 2 (and probably more like 4-5) other sours (Balaton, North Star) within 100’ of it. Danube blooms well, but doesn’t set much at all- maybe 10 cherries on the tree…

Mine is from Raintree, on Gisela 5. I’ve been grafting over it, but this may be the last year I give it before a jujube gets planted in that spot.

#22

Good feedback- I appreciate your experience and I will keep the admonition about over grafting it in mind.

#23

Bob:

I appreciate you sharing your experience. I am interested in trying Danube based on the recommendation of Dr. Dan Barney, Michael Phillips, Cummins Nursery and Dr. Bill Shane at Michigan State. Just goes to show that you never really know how things will do until you try them in your own locale. I do hope that your Danube takes off this year and gives you a reason to keep it. Best of success in growing this year.

Russ

#24

Russ,

Where are you located? Mamuang and me are within a state of each other, so the NE may not be ideal for Danube. Though I think Olpea (from KS) also saw poor fruit-set.

Bob

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#25

Thank you, Bob. I am located in Western Kentucky (Climate Zone 7a / Sunset Zone 33). The biggest issues with cherries in general in our location (beyond the ever-present disease and insect pressures) are early-bloom, heat stress and rain-induced cracking.

#26

@mamuang Word is that Krymsk-5 and Krymsk-7 may be particularly canker prone- hence the idea of minimalizing the pruning. Other forum members have complained of K-5s dying on them from canker. I’ve not seen that yet. Whitegold is on my K-5.

@BobVance Are you getting any production out of Balaton?

@Litsinger Have you tried/considered Montmorency yet? It is supposed to do well in a humid z7.

#27

Matt:

Thank you for your feedback. I sincerely appreciate it! We are trying for the whole successively ripening thing so the plan at present is to plant the following tart cherries:

  1. Danube (M)
  2. Early Richmond (A)
  3. Montmorency (A)
  4. Meteor (A)
  5. Balaton (M)
  6. English Morello (M)

As of today, I have located everything but Danube on K-5.

You are right- the two tart cherries recommended by the University of Kentucky are Montmorency and North Star.

#28

Don’t forget bird predation. Sounds like the low fruit-set will just prevent there from being as much damaged fruit :smile:

Some, but it spent a couple years in a pot which stunted it a bit and is only really starting to stretch out now. It had almost as many cherries as Danube, but on <10th the tree canopy.

For processing fruit, spreading out the harvest isn’t necessarily a good thing. Unless you are growing them for fresh eating, in which case spreading them out is a good idea. Maybe move the bird netting, as they get ripe enough to need it. Though I would fear that a lot of them might need to be netted for overlapping times.

#29

How do you like the taste of Balaton?

#30

Bob:

Good advice- you know what they say about the best-laid plans, but the general approach is to employ successive-ripening for fresh consumption and for local non-processed sales at farmer’s markets and direct-to-consumer. Your sage input about birds is helpful- should there be fruit enough to protect it sounds as though this will be yet another issue to be mindful of.

Ultimately, we are trying to have our proverbial cake and eat it to by trying several species, cultivars, types (i.e. Amarelle versus Morello) and ripening times to see both how they will respond in our area, and how our market will respond when presented with various options. At present, you would be hard-pressed to find either sweet or tart cherries for sale locally in a direct-to-consumer venue- only at chain grocery stores and brought in from PNW or Michigan. After our little experiment, that may still be the case :slight_smile:.

Thank you again for your helpful input. Have a great day.

Russ

#31

I found a note from a couple years ago which says “They were pretty similar to Montmorency, with the Balaton a bit better, but with a bigger pit.”

I’ve soured on growing sweet cherries. The ones I get from the store are better than anything I can grow or find locally. And my yield is a pittance…

Actually, both the sweet cherries I planted are dead. But I have a few small branches of sweets grafted (onto Danube and onto one of the rootstocks, Newroot1). I’m not expecting much from them though,.

#32

Russ,
There are reasons why people in your and my (and Bob’s) areas do not grow many sweet (or sour) cherries. They are a pain. In my experience, sweet cherries have more issues with canker, rot and cracking (don’t forget cracking. It could ruin an entire crop in one summer rain) than sour cherries.

Hope you don’t underestimate birds as enemy number one for cherries. They will take your cherries before they are ripe, sometimes while they are still green. They will take your cherries before they have time to rot or crack. You want to consider planting plan that would be accommodate easy netting. Best of luck for you.

#33

Thank you, sir. I appreciate you keeping me thoroughly grounded. Our general approach is to utilize something akin to the “Backyard Orchard Culture” approach espoused by Dave Wilson whereby we develop low scaffolds and maintain a terminal height of 8’ +/-. We’ll see…

Thank you again for all your help and input. It is most appreciated!

Russ

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