Warm; I guess I’m still on the fence a tad. I mean they were advertised as making this amount on a much smaller bush. So now I have these monster bushes that finally met the amounts they talked about, but I cannot imagine a 5-6’ bush doing that number. So, I think I’ll prune a lot more heavily than I did earlier, and just try to keep them at a more manageable size. Maybe sacrificing yield some, but won’t know until I go there…
Cracking and rot (this year) was a non-issue - owing that to the hot dry weather. Very lucky that way this year. Not so much in prior years.
Thanks Clark; I need to have a better plan on a go forward basis - that juicer thing you had looks like a possibility down the line.
JesseS; Three are on year 6, and two on year 5. Interestingly, one of the bushes that was planted in '12 seemed to have more cherries per square inch than any of the rest. I had a similar feeling last year about the other younger bush.
While picking I recalled reading somewhere in the information on CJ’s from the U of S that if a bush bears heavily one year it may be slightly less heavy the following year, and the very heavy bearer last year was not top dog this year, although like the rest it was still heavy. And yet it’s kinda hard to quantify given the difference from year to year.
Clark had posted in another thread that his seemed to double every year, mine have been consistent in increasing right along but this year was the breakout season for me as well, as last year we took 16 gallons from the 5 bushes -vs- the 33 from this years harvest.
Jerry,
Just for reference this is the link to my post for Carmine Jewell this year Carmine Jewell Cherry Yields increasing with age. As we discussed our results are very similar across the board on yields, suckering, height, years to produce heavy yields, growth habits etc…
Drew; My daughter mixed CJ’s with Montmorency and brought over a pie for Fathers Day, it was very good, and the contrast of the red and purple cherries was pretty cool.
Reading that other thread and saw you’d planned on dehydrating some, wondering if that happened. I was thinking these would work better than ER or Monty given they’re more firm/less juicy texture. We also talked about that some, but in the heat of the battle we were just trying to stay ahead of the game and never got around to setting up a dehydrator.
Unfortunately no, they were small and such, maybe next year. I have peppers and figs I will dehydrate. I decided to go for jam. I think being in pots, they didn’t grow that well. I need to get these trees in the ground. This fall I’m going to try and find a spot. I want to give away one tree, I need to arrange that and get it out of here. For me one tree should be enough
This might be a good reason to have the other plants in the series, to at least stagger some of the harvest. Too much at one time can be overwhelming. I put in like 20+ tomato plants one year and i was filling 5 gallon buckets trying to give them away. Cherries would be much easier (to get rid of) i would imagine!
My bush is 4 feet tall or more//it has put on a ton of growth this year.
I was hoping they would be sweeter. How do they compare to say a montmorency or one of the other sours?
mrsg47; I made this jam using a packet and maybe a quarter of the regular Sure-Jell and their instructions call for 4 3/4 cups of sugar. I cut it back to 4 1/4 thinking the extra little bit of Sure-Jell would still allow for a decent set. (I had tried before to cut back on the sugar even more and it just wouldn’t set up for me, the flavor was still good but not a jam consistency). I still think that due to the unreal amount of sugar it calls for, I have to say there is virtually no tartness to the jam. My wife agrees, she says “It’s not tart jam, but it’s good”!
I’ve just now finished pitting some Early Richmond in preparation for more jam, only this time I’m going to use the pink Sure-Jell box that says No Sugar Needed Recipes inside. It calls for 5 cups of cherries and 3 cups of sugar. The ER are MUCH more juicy and I tend to have a time getting it to set, so we shall see. I may try to cut back even more on the sugar as I tend to prefer a tarter cherry jam.
Warm; I might get to see some of the staggering effect maybe next year if my CP’s make cherries. But I feel like we were able to get these harvested just in the nick of time, finishing up as the Japanese Beatles were showing up to wreak havoc!! My fear is that any later ripening fruit may be a challenge, which is why I didn’t put in any Romeo as they’re a later ripening cherry I think.
As far as a comparison to other tarts, I just have never gotten the high brix numbers on my CJ’s although I know others have. We had the perfect ripening weather for the high brix numbers this year according to Dr. Bors, but still we had relatively low numbers. I mean it could not have been drier and highs in the 90’s that were pushing the century mark (I’ve been shading my cucumbers…)
The ER has higher brix numbers and are much sweeter than the CJ’s to everyone who was over here helping me pick the CJ’s this year. When they were all done (one family of 5 picked 8 gallons of CJ’s) they were all standing under the ER tree eating cherries as we visited. The kids just could not eat them fast enough.
I noted in another post (maybe even on GW a few years ago) that if I had to characterize the taste of CJ out of hand, I would have to say it reminds me of dry wine as far as the aftertaste, or dryness felt in my mouth. That may not be a fair description as I’m not a wine drinker but I seem to recall that feeling in my mouth at some point in the past whenever I had tasted a dry wine…
That doesn’t jive with what others have experienced however, as I know many rave about the sweetness (for a tart/sour cherry) of CJ, and I think Drew had noted having gotten some pretty high brix numbers on his CJ’s. So it may come down to it being all local. I don’t know if mine will ever reach a high number if they didn’t this year.
Unfortunately what I’ve noticed is that the harvest season for cherries is ultra compact. Nothing like you get with peaches, plums, apples, etc. Seems like the entire cherry season is over in 4-5 weeks.
I tasted my first one of 5 cherries from CJ - and got some worries… Though it is sweet enough, sweeter that North Star, in my opinion it lacks that “sour cherry” aroma, it is sweet and has enough acid, but the aroma - this is what i didn’t feel. Though may be it was not completely ripe yet and a bit misshaped, so may be it is not a proper test yet. What do you think, does it have the sour cherry kick?
Interesting that you should mention the lack of aroma. Less than 20 min ago I mentioned that to my wife, even opened up a jar of jam that she had just had on a piece of toast and held it up to her nose and said “You know, I don’t get a cherry smell - what about you”? She agreed, and yet said “But it’s still good jam” further saying that she had given some to her brother and his wife and that they raved about it too.
Yes, use that product. I cut it to 2.5 cups sugar, and do get a gel. I do though add things to help. Like some lemon or lime juice not only to gel, but to make sure pH is low enough to inhibit bacterial growth. If I feel a fruit doesn’t have enough pectin, I add it to a fruit that does, like I plan to make Carmine Jewel-Red currant jam. Currants are packed with pectin. It will no doubt gel.
Stir a lot so it doesn’t scorch at all. Make sure before you add the sugar that the mixture is at a good rolling boil. Not just starting to boil. Once sugar added keep stirring till at a rolling boil again, and keep it there one minute or so. It should gel now, test on cold plate.
Under ripe fruit is always high in pectin so I try to include some under ripe fruit. Currents or cherries.
If this still doesn’t work you can try the calcium gel. It works extremely well. You could add just a 1/2 cup of sugar and it will gel! This pectin never fails to gel. Follow label directions. You can get the product on Amazon under the brand name Pomona.
Maybe I will try the whole romance series cherries http://www.fruit.usask.ca/dwarfsourcherries.html but for now Carmine Jewell is fine with me. Blackberry season starts soon and it is another huge harvest. A person can only pick so much fruit. I try to space the fruits/ripening times out so I can handle the harvest.