My Vandalay on G5 is netted. I has a modest crop of cherries in different stages of red. We shared the first ripe cherry with my son yesterday. Last year grafts Stella, Utah giant and Kristin have a couple of cherries each and several more grafted varieties had no flowers this year. The weather looks perfect hot and no rain.
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I’ve been picking mine too soon, because of the birds, but the flavor really improves with a few more days, if you can get them
I have varieties I don’t see here. A Stark Rimson and a Helinfigen? Not sure of spelling on the last one. I just put them in the ground in late April so I’m sure I won’t get anything for a few years. Just wondering if you could suggest a good time and spray for year round care so I’ll see the day they produce? I’ve seen a lot of difficulties with cherries and it’s my wife’s favorite so mine MUST do well:stuck_out_tongue:
It’s Hedelfingen…
Hmm, that could be why my Waterloo and Black Eagle are slow to bear, they are on Mahaleb.
@dutch-s I had Hedelfingen in my original planting. It was a good cherry but it was not bearing much at all for me. This is similar to other older varieties I have grown, from my experience the older varieties take longer to bear. Whether thats just randomly the way things worked out for me or there is some truth to it I don’t know…
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I’d like to know what people consider the best-flavored sweet cherry
I’d say Bing, Van, and Sandra Rose are the best I’ve tasted. But again it’s more about growing conditions and how long you let them hang than variety. I’d suspect the average home grower sweet cherry is picked at least two weeks before prime maturity due to birds, rain etc.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1479128/2011-sweet-cherry-pics-and-report
What does well in a humid climate is probably way different than a dry as my greenhouse. Cherries are also known to be location sensitive. Some taste great in one location and have a sulfurous taste in another. I saw that in several varieties, Regina and some DWN material if I recall correctly.
I also like a large firm cherry much more than soft. It’s not all about taste.
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As I mentioned above, Black Eagle is my current favorite. I pulled up the Cherries of NY description and it pretty much nails it, see below. Its interesting they mention both the small size and lateness to bear that I observed.
We hesitatingly follow the American Pomological Society in calling this variety Eagle when it has so long been known as Black Eagle, the name given it by the great pomologist, Knight. Were this choicely good cherry larger in size, it would still be a prime favorite with growers for in many respects it is one of the best varieties of its species. Its flavor is excellent; the trees are usually fruitful; it ripens at a good time in the cherry season, just after Black Tartarian; the cherries are less liable to crack than many of its rivals; and the trees are as hardy, healthy and vigorous as those of any Sweet Cherry. Some complain that the trees do not bear well at first but are productive only with age. But, after all, it is its high quality that gives Eagle so much merit that it ought not to be forgotten makes it worth a place in every home orchard and commends it highly to commercial growers of cherries who want a finely finished product for either local or general market. The fruit-stems of this variety are characteristically long.
Eagle was grown about 1806 by Sir Thomas Andrew Knight at Down-ton Castle, Wiltshire, England, by fertilizing the Bigarreau of the old writers, our Yellow Spanish, with pollen of the May Duke. The correctness of the parentage as given has been questioned because of its inherited characteristics. But if the May Duke is a hybrid between a Sweet and a Sour, a pure Sweet offspring is not an impossibility. In 1823, Honorable John Lowell of Massachusetts received Eagle from Knight. Prince mentioned this cherry in his Treatise of Horticulture, 1828, but the exact date of its introduction into New York is unknown. In 1848 it was placed on the list of fruits adopted by the National Convention of Fruit Growers and since then it has been retained on the fruit list of the American Pomological Society.
Tree large, vigorous, upright-spreading, dense, unproductive at first but improving with age; trunk and branches thick, smooth; branches reddish-brown partly covered with ash-gray, with numerous small lenticels; branchlets thick, brownish partly covered with light ash-gray, the surface slightly ribbed and with small, raised, inconspicuous lenticels.
Leaves numerous, five inches long, two and one-half inches wide, folded upward, long, obovate to elliptical, thin; upper surface dark green, rugose; lower surface light green, thinly pubescent; apex variable in shape; margin coarsely and doubly serrate, with dark glands; petiole nearly two inches long, tinged with red, with a few hairs, with from two to four reniform, brownish glands usually on the stalk.
Buds large, conical or pointed, plump, free, arranged singly as lateral buds and in clusters on spurs of medium length; leaf-scars prominent; season of bloom medium; flowers white, one and one-eighth inches across; borne in scattered clusters in twos and threes; pedicels one inch long, slender, glabrous, greenish; calyx-tube green faintly tinged with red, campanulate; calyx-lobes with a trace of red, obtuse, glabrous within and without, reflexed; petals irregular-oval, crenate, with short, blunt claws and with a crenate apex; anthers yellowish; filaments one-fourth inch long; pistil glabrous, equal to the stamens in length.
Fruit matures in mid-season; nearly one inch in diameter, oblate, somewhat cordate, compressed; cavity regular, flaring; suture a faint groove; apex pointed or slightly depressed; color dark red almost black; dots small, russet, medium in number, obscure; stem slender, two inches long; skin thin, tender; flesh dark red, with wine-colored juice, meaty, tender, crisp, pleasant flavored, mild, sweet; very good to best in quality; stone free except along the ventral suture, rather small, ovate, slightly flattened, blunt, with smooth surfaces; ridged along the ventral suture.
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I had a very good harvest, the best so far. Covering a couple of trees with sheer (not tulle) fabric was key. The holes in tulle fabric are too big and will let fruit flies in. The people at the fabric store where I bought it call this type of fabric sheer. It is a light weight drapery type fabric that does not snag on the branches like bird netting and tulle does. It was sewn into a pillowcase, put over the trees and tied with twist ties below where the branches meet. No birds any animals or damaging insects got in there. There were some aphid/ant infestation on some of the new leaf growth however, but NO cherry damage.
Were I live, Bay Area CA, we have not had any rain of significance (.008" last month) since mid April. Cherry and many types of fruit trees like it DRY! Rain and damp weather ruins everything and causes diseases. If I lived out of this area I would grow fruit trees under a greenhouse like canopy and screen the sides. My 2 cents.
Coral Champagn, above, bought from Costco did really well (top photo in the distance). It was planted last season, 2016. The fruit tends not drop off, it softens then dries while the flavor intensifies. It has a Bing like flavor though not as intense.
I had about 6 bowls of juicy Stella cherries and gave many away to friends. Last season without the netting, only a small hand full was harvested.
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The key is low humidity and dry, the type of weather you have.
I wonder how much that sheer material will trap moisture. If it does, It won’t work where I live because we have rain every 2-3 days and it is humid here.
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Update on the above, the Black Gold are finally getting edible. They are more like plums as far as sugar goes but are still worth picking and eating. The Sandra Rose are wonderful! But I noticed yet another canker on it, yikes.
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Picked my two White Gold today. One was way under-ripe and the other was closer ripe. Not much to write home about, but they were small on a tree that was just planted this year. I’m sure there is a learning curve to them.
The good thing about White Gold seems to be they set without any other sweet cherries, as I’m not aware of any in my neighborhood.
Both White Gold and Black Gold are self fertile ( several cherries are). They set better if there is a compatible partner nearby.
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Lapins does well here. Not large but excellent taste. Mine is on GM61 rootstock. It’s about 3 days from picking and covered by a frame of bird netting. Light crop this year maybe due to odd weather. Most years it sets pretty heavily.
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Time for an update on my sweet cherries…
The Black Gold are finally sweetening up a bit! I think in past years the birds decimated them all by now but this year there are no birds so I can taste them. They are not great cherries but they are perfectly fine ones. They are not cracking at all.
Waterloo has bumped up a notch, it is a really great-tasting cherry. Compared to Sandra Rose, it has a touch of tannin which gives it a depth of flavor that Sandra Rose doesn’t have.
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Photos? Congrats/ enjoy.
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Scott,
Can you post some pictures? Would love to see pictures of the black gold especially.
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I made several pictures of cherries yesterday. Here is my multigrafted sweet cherry on G5. The main variety is Vandalay On the right side from it is Danube on G5, which is non productive this year again.
Vandalay cherries were the earliest from all grafted varieties. And I found out that I have maggots in about half of them, what a surprise!
They quite large. Taste wise they are juicier and more sour than the Bing cherries, but they have enough sugar to balance it. The very dark ones can be very good in flavor. They are different from Bing, but I still liked them very much.
Two cherries from Utah Giant were very firm and sweet like Bing. Also very large size.
I did not tasted the other varieties as they were not ripe yet.
Stella has smaller fruits.
Kristin also has smaller fruits as well as Lapins on the second picture.
White gold single cherry.
Another grafted variety Benton will be late it still has green cherries.
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Fabulous pics and cherries!
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Is that a curc bite on the WG?
Antmary,
Those are great looking cherries! Thanks for posting pictures.