This Carmine Jewel is two to three years old and may have had a few flowers last year,but no fruit.Now,there are more and possibly there will be something to taste,with the help of these guys(gals) in their house against the building wall in the background,the Mason Bees. Brady
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It seems like they get more flowers and fruit as they get older. This is what some of mine look like.
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Beautiful flowers Clark. Two of mine 7 feet trees are about to bloom.
Tony
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Tony,
Glad to hear your carmine jewel are doing well. The other carmine jewel cherries in the row are looking pretty good at my place. So far in my experience carmine jewel have excellent disease resistance and produce excellent quality fruit. Let me know how yours do this year. The fruits get very black here and the first year I picked some of them when they were red because I did not know what they were supposed to look and taste like.
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So Clark,I guess it’s best to wait as long as possible to pick them?Nice pics,by the way. Brady
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Brady,
Yes it will be tempting to pick them early out of fear of something stealing them but it’s best to wait until they actually get black. Here is a picture of half of my row with an extra large coffee cup in front of it to help visualize size. Mine are about 5 - 6 feet tall with a few smaller ones in there.
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I have a few in pots but mine are just starting to leaf out right now. I need to put them in the ground
DO the flowers have a sweet smell to them? Anything like a sweet cherry?
I know it sounds strange but mine really don’t have much of a smell at all. In comparison with my clove currants, wild plums , western sand cherries , honeysuckle vine etc they are nearly odorless.
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I agree with Clark about the smell,really none. Brady
Be patient with those Carmines. They should be this dark when you pick them. It will probably only take another 7-10 days for you.
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Thanks Don. I will net them tonight to keep the birds out.
Tony
How do they taste? I just planted Romeo, Cupid and Juliet this year.
Carmine jewel have an excellent sweet tart taste when they are ripe.
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This year we had a huge harvest. Does anyone spray their CJ in Spring or fall with copper? If so why ? If not why? I’m a little concerned since some things like certain grapes don’t react well to copper.
I sprayed my CJs with the rest of the stone fruits the last 4 years with copper and without any problem to the CJs.
Tony
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I have never sprayed my Carmine Jewel or other cherry bushes. I do have to spray apples here, but that’s for apple scab and sometimes apple worms.
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I am really thinking about buying Carmine Jewel and Crimson Passion. Tart cherries like Erdi Botermo (I think it’s called Danube in US) are very sensitive to brown rot/monilia laxa here. I read bush cherries are more resistant to diseases, but what do you think about the taste compared to regular tart cherries, is it comparable? Also, does anyone know what is the size of full grown bush cherry and if all the 5 or so bush varieties are ripening at the same (I would prefer not to)?
Paul,
The flavor is a little better in my experience than with that of normal sour cherries. The website below will tell you brix which is sugar content. You can also view fruit size, the site shows pictures etc. http://www.fruit.usask.ca/dwarfsourcherries.html . Carmine Jewell in my experience is typically 6 1/2 feet to 7 feet. they will get brown rot like all cherries but they do seem to be more resistant to most diseases. The foliage obscures the fruit slightly so if you are looking for fruit it forces you to brush leaves up with your hand. Overall the bushes bear lighter for me in my location than a cherry such as montmorency. I personally cannot help out with the ripening times because I do not grow all the usask cherries rather only carmine Jewell.
clarkinks, thank you very much, that’s exactly what I was looking for.
If I find ripening times I will post it here
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