Utah Giant on a small graft on deficit irrigation. One of the best cherries I have ever eaten, but everything on this multi-graft drought irrigated tree is amazing. Royal Lee on the same tree measured 28 brix. I am not sure what it means that a small dying graft of Utah Giant made a cherry. Since the flavor is so good I will probably try more grafts to see how productive it is.
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Rainier cherry, left to color and ripen, was only 16 brix and did not taste good. Not productive, just a few scattered cherries.
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Royal Crimson actually hit 27 brix. Most are around 22 and some are around 18 or 19. They are sweet and good at higher brix but not at the same level as Brooks or Royal Lee.
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The Coral cherries on this tree are at peak flavor and are very good. On other trees there is an aftertaste that is hard to describe. but I use the term “grass-like,” a taste one encounters in unripe cherries. One of my sons sampled a Coral cherry from a commercial grower a couple weeks ago and said quietly to me, without knowing the cultivar, “Dad, these are terrible.” On the other hand sometimes they hit peak flavor and are rich and very good. Never give up on a cultivar on one year’s performance. They seem to be my most productive cultivar, right up there with Minnie Royal. More experience is needed.
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It looks like I need to add Royal Crimson and Brooks to my Royal Lee and Minnie Lee trees to help produce more overlap in flowering.
Royal Lee brix on deficit irrigated tree ranged from 26-31 brix today.
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The last of the Royal Lee harvest a couple days ago. Exceptional fruit, my favorite cherry. Very intense flavor. Prolonged harvest (and bloom) is why it seems to be more of a backyard fruit than commercial.
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Kansas Sweet cherries are ripe. When picked at this wrinkly raisin stage, the brix was consistently 25-28. That probably does not reflect the true character of the fruit, as anything “dried” generates a higher brix.
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Brix of Kansas Sweet was 20-22 when picked at a ripe stage. They tasted good for fresh eating, rather mild, and did not have the strong acidity I expected. It tasted balanced. They were slightly sweeter and less acidic than Balaton I have tried (that others grew in another climate), and tasted similar to Belle Magnifique. Flesh was soft of course, and Kansas Sweet is a freestone.
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My lapins died up at my cabin. Such a bummer. Good news is I got it from Stark Bro so they will be replacing/refunding it.
So in the end, if I have room for one tree in socal, what should I plant and on what rootstock? I’m successful at grafting, so I’m willing to graft two or three varieties to it.
For cherries I would say buy Royal Crimson, graft Minnie Royal and Royal Lee and Brooks. Rootstock Maxma 14 (Gisela 12/Krymsk also fine but not sold on Royal Crimson). Still experimenting though.
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What would you say has been the biggest challenge growing the tree? I searched royal crimson on this site, and noticed several excellent people had theirs died. I’m curious if it’s more fussy than others.
My Royal Crimson died the second leaf a few years ago. I would plant several cherry trees of different varieties near each other and graft other varieties to them. If one dies you have redundancy and cross pollination equates to higher yields. I ended up grafting a scion of Royal Crimson to a small Bing tree, it produced a few cherries the same season! no waiting around for years.
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I have killed just about every cultivar of cherry! My trees are healthier now that I:
-plant in 100% dirt (no compost at all, just mineral dirt, the stuff you find 12 inches under the ground)
-ensure good drainage (sand or perlite mixed with your dirt. Mostly sand for me)
-plant very high (12 inch high mound of sandy dirt for me)
-massive amount of mulch on top of the ground (but none within 6 inches of trunk). This is to make sure it does not dry out and die.
-ensure shade around trunk facing the south the first year (I lay a large piece of bark from firewood, or I actually stack firewood, or I plant something)
I found that cherry trees do best if you treat them like avocado trees.
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English Morello is still being harvested. The tree shows chill maladaptation but the fruit is good. Right now it is the perfect balance where the acid levels have dropped enough to reveal the sprightly flavor. This photo is 2 weeks old, but they look pretty similar right now.
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I just bought royal crimson on mazzard. My local green thumb had Dave Wilson bare root cherries on mazzard and nothing else. I’m somewhat dreading a giant tree in my small yard.
Large cherry trees are so beautiful though!
My royal crimson is leafing out now.
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Zone 10a with up to 700 chill hours sounds like the best of all worlds. What can’t you grow there! 