thats good to hear Kev. had me worried. all mine are loaded with fruit here at 4th leaf including monty. juliet was the best here last year but only got about 8- 10 on the c.j and juliet . this year should be very interesting to compare them all. i may need to buy a pitter.
my lutowka rose is growing very vigorously. might give me a few to try next summer.
2 Likes
What about the meader cherries? Some people say they are sweet enough to eat. Another poster said they are an āacquired tasteā.
1 Like
I really look forward to hearing your report. I hope they are as good as mine are this year. One thing is fot sureā¦my bushes sure do produce a LOT! Iād say per square foot, they are the most productive fruit I grow. I picked 4 quarts (1 gal) yesterday off 2 five foot bushes and you canāt tell any are missing! Good luck!
2 Likes
seeing i have 8 cherry trees i dont think i need to get 2 more. weāll see.
1 Like
Time to revive this old thread!
My Juliet was well loaded and we had fantastic dry weather where I could let them get fully ripe in the bush (number one reason why people find them too sour, when they first turn red they are still not ripe). Then I noticed them thinning, which was odd because usually birds donāt bother them and if they did they would leave a mess. Well the mystery was solved when the other morning I looked out of the window and saw my daughter munching on them right off the bush. She got in the habit of attacking the cherries in the morningā¦
She doesnāt like sweet cherries but these are one of her favorite fruits.
8 Likes
Hey mamuang,
I had the exact same experience with Danube. The cherries tasted good, but I canāt give up that much real estate for 2-6 cherries. I had a similar experience with Jubileum. Theyāre almost worse, because when ripe they are purple. Birds attack both cherries when they are an unripe bright red. You get none.
John S
PDX OR 
2 Likes
with all the rain we had. even after 3 fungal sprays. brown rot found my crop a week before they were dead ripe. birds/ squirrels dont touch them here yet. knock on wood! i lost about 1/3rd of my crop but still froze a crapload. sprayed with immunox right after harvest to at least hopefully keep the spores from surviving. going to up my spray regimen to hopefully nip it in the bud. up till this spring i only sprayed copper then 1 immunox during fruiting and during leaf fall. voles ate my polish cherry to the ground but it came back from the stump and about 10ft from that, from the roots and put on nearly 5ft of growth since late may. they are nearly the size of the mother plant that got eaten.
3 Likes
Which sour cherries do best around Philadelphia? I already grow Juliet which heāll also grow. but my nearby friend may want to also add a sour cherry tree as well as they love Persian/Iranian sour cherry (aka Albaloo aka i think thats actually English Morello). How would English Morello (Morello type) vs Montmorency (Amerelle type) do around here on East Coast here? or would another tree type be recommended.
1 Like
We have the Juliet and Crimson Passion. No fruit yet, but had a few flowers last spring, perhaps 2024? From what Iāve read the CP cherries are supposed to be the best of the bunch, but this link from Montana theyāre not having much luck with them producing: Cherries - Western Agricultural Research Center | Montana State University
Have also read they make excellent pie.
2 Likes
Crimson Passion is known to take a long, long time to fruit. Ask @galinas. She had first hand experience.
3 Likes
Planted Crimson Passion in 2013. Removed in 2019. Didnāt try a single berry. Didnāt see a single flowerā¦ It was planted in full sun in rich soil.
5 Likes
And I got a stick of your Crimson Passion and grafted it on my Juliet since 2017 (or 2018). So far, it has not produced any flower.
4 Likes
its a heavy producer in my region but we get alot more rain than M.T. great in pies but Juliet is best followed by Romeo. the best flavored here is still the tried and true Montmorency, though it got damaged 3 winters ago by -40 temps. i left it alone but need to prune out the damaged wood as its been stunted since. before that the bush was just starting to produce. i have several z4 sweet cherries grafted on the south side that are growing well.
1 Like
I really like the flavor of Carmine Jewel and Juliet. Juliet keeps getting better with age. Do they taste like Montmorency cherries? No, that is a unique flavor. But the bush cherries have their own unique flavor. Iām so glad they are different and I love both. Iām hoping wowza is decent. The first crop was pretty good. I lost Carmine Jewel and was going to replace it but now Iām not as Juliet keeps getting better. This year it was yet again improved in flavor enough to compete with Carmine Jewel so I decided to not replace it as the small size is undesirable.
So I have Wowza and Juliet and 2 Montmorency cherries. These produce enough cherries for me. Montmorency seems to be easy to keep at 7 feet.
I have now used backyard orchard style pruning to keep harvest pedestrian (no ladders) style for a full decade. Works fantastic for me.
3 Likes
for fresh eating i like monty but the romance cherries really shine in jams and pies. the 1st pie i made this year was a mix of camine and juliet. it was to die for! such richness and deep color. easily my favorite cherries for pies. havent tried monty in baking yet but the flavor seems to be not as rich as the romance ones. more tangy which i prefer for fresh eating. when i get enough for a pie ill make a comparison on here.
2 Likes
I grow Utah Giant sweet. So that is what I have for fresh eating. I process all the tart cherries. UG is very firm and cracks easily but itās still good if you harvest them. Itās sweet even before being fully ripe. Funny the flesh is yellow when it first turns red. Itās good at this stage. If you let it go flesh starts turning pink then a full red when fully ripe. No tartness at all at this stage. Which is great as fruit can struggle to have a high brix here. Not Utah Giant.
2 Likes
Thatās interesting that some have grafted sweet cherries to Carmine Jewels. Any more experiences to share about attempts to do that? I have tried to grow sweet cherries for years, but only one year got a taste. This grafting sounds like something I would like to try.
not on carmine. on monty. monty has a unknown sweet parent in its lineage so it will take a sweet graft. i found a website about 5 years ago stating this but ive since not be able to find it again. appears to be true as itās the only sour that will take a sweet scion that i know off. it will supposedly pollinate a sweet as long as the bloom time overlaps.
1 Like
Good to know that, so I wouldnāt be disappointed.
1 Like
I have white gold, black tartan, bing, Utah giant, and other sweet cherry grafted on Carmine Jewel. I didnāt see big graft compatability issue, but I do have some productive issues. It is probably due to sour cherry is pruned differently. At least, I prune sour cherry and sweet cherry differently. My sweet cherry (white gold,I have it on carmine Jewel for 5+ years) does not produce a lot of cherries. It may grow or produce better if just use carmine Jewel as rootstock, not a multigrafted tree.
1 Like