What did the romance cherries taste like when cooked?
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I know Iāve mentioned this in an older thread about bush cherries, but for anyone wanting a sour cherry for fresh eating try Mesabi. Itās a small tree. I compared it to romeo and the sourness is more tolerable. 2 or 3 dead ripe romeo cherries is about all I could handle, with Mesabi the sourness never becomes too much. l had a half dozen friends try them and none found them very sourā¦just a pleasant, to all of us, level of tartness. Iām surprised I never see mention of it on here, although Iām seeing them show up for sale around here this year at the farm stores. Iām pretty sure itās been around for a long time. One downside is productivity, it is pretty low and wonāt come close to what Iāve read about Bush cherries on here. I harvested maybe 2 pounds for drying plus what I ate off the trees in a two week period. Probably 4 years in the ground at that point. No idea what they are producing now at 6 years.
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Good to know about the colour. I donāt mind if itās darker but do they have that distinct ācherry pieā flavour?
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Im not saying don is wrong, just trying to learn something. (i certainly have stuff to learn about bush cherryās.)
But how are they genetically different?
Prunus cerasus Sour cherry (or tart cheery)
Prunus fruticosa European dwarf cherry, dwarf cherry, Mongolian cherry or steppe cherry
Prunus avium Sweet cherry
The ābushā and ātreeā sour cherry are both Prunus cerasus with sometimes Prunus fruticosa mixed in. As far as i understood it.
It also seems like Prunus avium crossed whith Prunus fruticosa naturally stabalised and became Prunus cerasus.
If this is correct their all quite closely related genetically.
They seem graft compatible. And they also can be crossed.
Or am i mistaken in any of the above information?
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That depends on your taste! I eat them right from the bush and frozen in winter. But I know many people who wouldnāt even swallow it. 
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as well as the romance series cherries and red/ white nankings, i have a lutowka rose cherry i got from honeyberry USA a few years ago. the fruit is supposedly bigger than any of the romance series and is less acidic. its also a fast producer of 3xs the amount of cherries by year 5 than any of the romance series. its the number 1 sour cherry grown in europe. its 3 ft.tall this year and i gave it its first fertilization 2 weeks ago. im really looking forward to this one. ill save the seeds and share them with you folks once i get them. its a Prunus cerasus as well. should cross pollinate well with my romance series. was only a 6in. stick when i got it so its a very fast grower compared to the Canadian cherries.
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No you are not mistaken, but Prunus cerasus (Montmorency cherry) is not Prunus Fruticosa. Thats all. There are combinations also making them different. The former is a tree, the latter is a shrub.
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Gosh, by the shovel full. They are dark, almost black red and canāt compete in the color department (Montmorency and Evans almost look neon cherry red) but their flavor is superior, which like with most sour cherries unlocks with sugar.
I would not eat a montmorency or evans off the tree, I would eat Juliets. If you like sour drops chances are youāll enjoy these fresh.
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If you want a real treat, steam juice some apples and preserve the cherries in that juice. The juice is so good. I do peaches like that too. 
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I have heard you say that a few times over the years, and yet I bought a Danube 3 years ago anyway. Guess what? Itās now a pretty good sized tree (5 ft + and bushy) and has a grand total of 2 cherries on it this year!!! I bought an early Richmond the same year, its about the same size, and probably has 150 cherries on it this year!!! I really need to listen to you more!!!
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has either of you experimented grafting it on a precosious rootstock? No idea if it will help. But from what if read it should be graft compatible with almost alle cherry rootstocks. So you coulkd graft it to for example gisela 5ā¦
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Mine started fruiting fairly quickly, maybe 3 years? It was a while ago, so I canāt swear to it. Zone 6, eastern ma. But it seems like a lot of trouble to graft to maybe gain a year.
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Kevin,
At the time, I was not the only one frustrating with Danube being unproductive. There were a few of us. However, there was one member who said she had more success and that could be because of better cross pollination.
Danube may be pickier about its cross pollination partner than other cherry varieties. You may want to plant another Hungarian-bred sour cherry for its partner.( fortunately, Hungary has bred several)
Your tree is still young. It may take longer time to be productive. I think I took mine out after 5 years and got about 20 cherries.
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my grafting to precosious rootstock was not neccesarely ment to make it produce sooner. But just to make it less unproductive.
Whith sweet cherryās there seems to be a production difference between rootstocks of the same size. I remember a document (the greg lang document?) mentioning that certain varieties that are hard to get producing should be planted on the more productive gisela 5 for example. And the self fertile often overproducing varieties would match Krymsk 6 better, since youād need to thin less. (krymsk 6 is suppposed to be less productive/precosious than gisela 5. but roughly same size)
@mamuang
Do you remember the Danube having few flowers? or did it have plenty of flowers, just little cherryās. Do you think it was a flower bud production problem? a flower pollination problem? or maybe both?
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Ah, i understand now. You are taking about coaxing Danube into production. I thought you were talking about the romance cherries, which are pretty productive on their own roots.
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I hope you are right about Danube still having more of a chance, but we arenāt off to a good start with 2 cherries on the whole tree! It is young, so Iāll hold out hope. As for polination, within a 40 foot radius, and most within 15 feet, I have 2 Montmorency, 1 Early Richmond, 1 North Star, 3 kinds of sweet cherry (probably no help there), 2 kinds of cherry hybrids (also probably no help), and some bush cherries that probably arenāt helpful for polinators. But I expected the 3 other sour cherries might help. They are all taller and right beside my Danube and their petals fall all over it so their pollen must also. Thats why I have little hope.that I can do better. Iām honestly not sure where to find a list or source for other Hungarian Cherries. The only one I can think of is Balaton and as I recall its self fertile? If you have a list or a source Iād like to see it. thanks
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Please see this thread.
Hungarian pie cherries-Jubileum, Danube, Balaton, and.....? - #29 by wfwalton.
@HighandDry has been successful but it looks like it takes several year to start being productive.
@thecityman Look like all you can do is waiting for the tree to mature. Just donāt let deer munch your trees.
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look into the Lutowka rose polish cherry. its the most grown sour cherry in europe. by year 5 its 3xs more productive than any of the romance series and has a bigger cherry that is less acidic. i got one 2 years ago from Honeyberry USA. went from a 6in stick to 3ft in 2 seasons. unfortunitly they dont carry them anymore.
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Until this year, I felt like I have suffered from every major fruit tree problem in existence with two notable exceptions: Iād never been hit by peach tree borers and never had any deer damage. Well, now I can say I have had to deal with almost every single major fruit tree problem (I know there are thousands of fruit tree issues, Iām just talking about the really big, really common ones). Sadly, I discovered lots of borer fras and sap and holes and then in the last 2 months Iāve had deer just devour several of my fruit tree foliage!!! Especially my hazelnuts and a couple pluots. So Iā[m sure they will be back! So Iām sorry to say deer may well end up making my danube tree their breakfast. I have way too many trees to try to cage them all and I canāt afford to fence in the entire 2 acre area of my orchard. Also donāt really want to start doing electric wires or anything else. I am a deer hunter so come fall I may be doing it from my back porch instead of driving 100 miles, hiking 1.5 miles, putting up a stand, etc. ha.
@steveb4 You really make those sound awesome. if you or anyone else knows a source for Lutowka Cherry trees, please let me know. I cant imagine anything being more productive than Romance series bush cherries, but if Lutowka is then Iām darn sure willing to try one. Especially if they are less sour than Romance (less acidic might translate to less sour??)
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Thatās a great idea. I made cherry syrup, dried (sweetened) cherries, cherry jam, cherry juice, and also just can them in plain water or a really light syrup. So many uses, all delicious! The juice is fantastic on its own, imo. But mixed with a club soda & a splash of lime makes an original cherry limeade.
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