Sweet Cherries 2017

Interesting, I didn’t know that. I wonder how they get the firmness then, if it isn’t due to variety?

My trees are getting to be twenty foot tall.

It depends what you mean by “firm”. My White Gold, Regina, and Sandra Rose are all pretty firm, you can’t easily distort the shape with your fingers. Black Gold is less firm. Most of the old heirloom cherries are less firm than Black Gold. None of my backyard varieties are super crunchy like some grocery store cherries. Super crunchy like Bing usually means bad cracking.

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I compare all my cherry firmness to Bing. My Black Gold, Vandalay and Sweetheart are not firm.

Great (old) thread… and a lot of discussion on White Gold and Black Gold here. I’m finding conflicting information about bloom times… some threads indicating they are about the same, and the CSU extension saying White Gold is an early-mid bloomer. I question that CSU doc.

Can anyone who has had both clarify the bloom times for these cherries, and if you know, how their hardiness and disease resistance compares? I got the flavor bit already :slight_smile:

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I have both but only the BlackGold has fruited for me. Both cherries are self fertile. They are both quite hardy for sweet cherries. My advice would be to buy both on a dwarf or semi-dwarf rootstock and see how they work out for you since time is very expensive and you can’t buy more of it. On dwarfing rootstock you can keep the trees in a small space and have a tree that is easy to care for.

BlackGold flowers very late and it’s bloom overlaps with my Montmorency tart cherry. It is susceptible to canker but many people on the forum have been successful in spite of this problem. I think if you would limit yourself to pruning only in the Summer your risk of having a problem with canker would be greatly diminished. Fruit set and yields are higher than on WhiteGold.

WhiteGold blooms earlier than BlackGold and that makes it a better pollinator for most cherries. BlackGold will escape late frosts but blooms too late to pollinate many sweet cherries reliably. See this bloom and pollen compatibility chart.

https://www.grandpasorchard.com/page/_ccLib/attachments/about/GOWeb-Pollination-Swt+Cherry(2013)(Landscape).pdf

Other threads you may find of interest.

Eastern Sweet Cherries

Cherry trees in New Jersey

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