My sweet cherry is an umbrella shape and stand 6 ft tall. My sour cherries is about 7 ft tall so they are easy to net.
My friend did not listen to me about pruning and did not prune her Bing and Stella cherry trees. After 5 years, Bing is almost 20 ft tall and “compact” Stell is closer to 15 ft tall. She admits birds get all her cherries.
Is that a shrub cherry or a tree? Wow, they love your cherries! I used to net my entire tree. that would drive me crazy!
The last two pics were from Juliet, a bush cherry. A few posts before that, was the pic of Black Gold sweet Cherry.
Still horrible!
Yup. Pretty much zero return on cherries this year. I are a few underripe Juliet. They were tart.
@mrsg47 introduced me to those American Netting nets (which I am pretty sure you’ve talked about as well and may have used?) and I find my Romance Cherries to be PERFECTLY suited for netting. I don’t even use frames and don’t get any damage on them (unlike all my tree cherries which are both tall and more easily damaged and fruit gets knocked off and so on). I wait until my Romance cherries start turning red and simply throw a net over the entire bush - mine are about 7 ft tall and quite wide- and set rocks on top of where the net pools on the ground around the bushes. It is just shocking how many cherries I get that way. I tried pie pans, scare tap, CD’s (the shiny silver kind), plastic snakes, fake owls, etc. I find those thinks are only slightly effective for 2-3 days and then the birds figure out they pose no danger and then they have no effect at all!
Anyway, just wondering if you’ve tried full netting on your Romance? Al though, I’m sure I do have one big advantage over you that might be why you don’t just “throw a net over the bushes”…I am almost 6’ 1" tall. From the pics I’ve seen of you, I’m sure you are considerably shorter! 
So it probably is a lot harder for you to throw a net on and then tug it here and there to adjust it.
Kevin
@mrsg47 kindly gifted me several American nettings before she left for France. We have used them.
Like I said we have been behind on orchard tasks. This year we set up a few more raised beds. Mixing soil-less media for those raised beds has been time consuming and rather expensive !!
By the time I noticed my cherries were turning red, the birds had already enjoyed free buffet.
When I threw a net over my Juliet bush in the past, birds got all of the cherries that were next to the net. We prefer setting up a frame.
Yes, I am considerably shorter than you but, fear not, my right hand man is the one doing all heavy lifting. 
@thecityman
I rescued these many Juliet from birds. They were not even fully ripe. As you may know, ripe Juliet are darker red, closer to maroon.
There will always be next year, I guess.
sorry to ask, I know that one of the romance series cherries parents is north star, but do these taste closer to something monty, or like for example balaton. I had one from my tree for the first time, had to rescue early like you but kind of forgot the taste.
I remember you and I both felt a little disappointed in how sour all the Romance cherries were and we decided that the same year, but I think Juliet were best. No matter how they taste, though, those are some beautiful cherries!
Looks just like my crop this year! 
I do not grow Mont or Balaton so I cannot comment.
I was excited to see a catbird in our rose bush yesterday, maybe I need to rethink that!
I am sorry, forgot
Catbirds may be one of the most destructive birds for orchards.
I just finished thinning my fruit trees. A lot of bird pecks on very green fruit, apples, pears, peaches, nectarines and plums. I guess they pecked to test the fruit and moved on since the fruit were not palatable yet.
It seems like the animals are “moving in” to your orchard now… I found that over the years more and more animals showed up. Last year I had crows for the first time doing lots of damage, they were checking things out a bit for a few years and moved in big time last year.
My cherries did better than usual, I got a lot of scare tape up early enough. It needs to be up before the cherries change color, to keep the birds from even checking things out. Also I use a ton of it, maybe 50 pieces of 5’ or so length.
The romance cherries taste very different from montmorency. Montmorency is a lighter colored cherry that is a very heavy producer. The juice of these Canadian cherries are much darker and thick like coffee. The flavor is intensely different side by side. The juice of carmine jewell makes me feel energized from a small amount but montmorency takes more. Think of carmine jewell as cherry juice concentrate. It’s an intense flavor because it’s extremely concentrated and thick. Comparing these cherries is like comparing gold and white gold the preferred one is a preference only. They are the best sour cherries have to offer and there are drawbacks to both as well. Here is how I juice mine Carmine Jewell is living up to its famous reputation . I’ve raised montmorency seedlings and grafted them as well Seedling Montmorency cherries
Yup, Scott.
They are telling their friends to come over to my yard for a party. I will set up a structure for netting sooner next year.
I thought 5-6 scare tape was enough for one bush cherry. Look like I need a lot more if I go that route.
Tippy, your cherry tree is now going to store more energy for next season, so be better prepared for a heavier crop. Costumice your tree now, netting?
Thanks. I need to plan for next year.
