Carmine Jewell Cherry Yields increasing with age

@Johnnysapples

My bushes did that to me several times and it was a maturity problem. Once the bush hits 5-6 years old or so it will turn every bloom into a cherry! The yields consistently go up every year until they hit 7 or so and then they level out. Production is extremely high once they are mature. You will be shocked in year 4-7 when they start to increase yields. Year 7 is overwhelming when you suddenly realize I’ve got gallons of cherries and I need to get them off the bush. If you have a chance and I know this thread is long but look back where my bushes were and the years which are documented and you can predict where your bush Is at in the cycle. Kansas is a harsh environment at times but I don’t know how much it slowed down the growth of these cherry bushes.

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I know i had a lot of BBs on my haskap that bloomed about 1 week earlier but when my cjs were blooming all the beez seemed to disappear. I had a lot more fruit in them last year…

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That is possible that it was a pollination issue in that case if production went down but that would be really unusual in this area. It’s not something I’ve seen with CJ here but I have seen it with other things.The blooms are very attractive to the pollinators.

It looks like my Carmine Jewels planted in 2014 are going to finally crop. I have a couple others on poor soil planted when they first came out in the U.S. in 2009 or so that still haven’t kept their cherries to maturity, so I hope these do. My Romeos also have some cherries, but lots of dead branches and some with tiny yellow sickly leaves. I hope it is nothing contagious. They are also suckering profusely, so no need to try rooting cuttings or any such thing.

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I’ve been spraying my bushes with my other trees. Now that I have indar it says it controls cherry leaf spot. I would spray your bush if you already haven’t.

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@Johnnysapples is giving great advice. Sour cherries are susceptible to leaf spot Sour Cherry Leaf Spot. I just use immunox or other inexpensive fungicide.

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I spray mine too, just a routine thing to do. I tend to get leaf spot on some pluots. Cherries can get brown rot too, the dwarf sour cherries are sprayed like my other trees for curl, spot, and brown rot.

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Really hot here so the cherries are coloring up but they are still pretty small.

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There getting pretty big. I bet you wish you planted them further apart. You would get more cherries then, but by the looks of them you have plenty. Looking good Clark. I bet these would get twenty foot tall!

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Almost ripe already!

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Do you think these would survive the heat here? Relatively low humidity but 90+ from May until September with lots of dry hot wind

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They survive here with 5 inches of rainfall for the year , whipping winds, clay soil, roasting heat that started the first part of May and has hardly been under 90’s since. Few things can tolerate Kansas but these cherries love it! It has affected the crop with many drops due to drought. The pears and apples are dropping as well in an attempt to stay alive.

Well I think I will have to join the group and try them out. Thanks

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Clark,
My husband said your cherries looked like maraschino cherries :grin:

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Complete opposite weather for me. 24 inches of rain, sandy soil, May 50s,60s, 70s and not much sun. Growth is ok but CJ cherries look like they will rot before ripening. Same problem with Lapin, Stella and Rainier cherries.

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My sweet cherries are hard for me to grow in similar conditions. Cherries don’t like getting wet! The mold and fungus attacks them. My sours can stand it much better. I didn’t know this till lately on a youtube search, but some commercial cherry growers in Washington pay helicopters to hover over their orchards to knock of the water blow drying them. Great, so now I’ll be out there with the leaf blower after every wet spell, not! Sweet cherries are too much work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPT9YbtINy4&t=904s

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The crop is lighter this year but there will be enough and very soon!

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How is the disease this year? It looks like less disease from the pictures. The cherries look good.

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No disease yet and no spraying has been done yet.

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Finally I’m getting fruit from mine! I have 2, 3 ft tall CJ that are 3rd leaf that each gave about a half-gallon of clean fruit, a 2nd year Juliet that shot up to 6 ft and bloomed heavily but only set a dozen cherries, so I got to taste it at least. The Juliet was larger, sweeter with a good taste, and the plant has sent up 4 suckers so I’m happy with it. The Juliet has been much more vigorous than the CJ. Lastly is a North Star that’s 2nd leaf and only 5 ft tall but it’s given me about a gallon of fruit. All clean and no cracks despite a very wet week(8 inches of rain) from a tropical storm sitting on us. The only spray I got on them was a dormant spray in Feb. The cherries were a good surprise, but my shock was that there were no losses to birds, raccoons or possums, they didn’t even notice the trees. I was surprised at how quickly they turned, from green to showing color, to ripe in a week for the North Star, a bit longer for the CJ. Sorry for no pictures, I’ve been in a post-surgery funk, getting very little done and moving slowly.

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