Thanks @AJfromElmiraNY pretty soon you will have more cherries than you can imagine! I’m glad those posts inspired you and i hope you do it 100x better than me. The carmine jewell cherries are an incredible variety! Your bushes look fantastic! Like the way you laid those out. I figured a solid row produces more cherries but i have no proof of that. The spaced row allows more air in which should reduce disease. I would love to have a few acres of them and mechanically harvest them for juice!
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Those look very nice!
I was going to space them 8’, but decided to go with 12’ after seeing the size of your bushes. I’ll probably dig up suckers and prune to makes sure they don’t grow together. Of course , I haven’t factored in renewal strategies yet. Generally I agree that full sun and good airflow around bushes are best.
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Wait a few days…until we get there 
It looks fabulous. Congrats.
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@zendog
They are not ripe yet but they are close. They are blacker when ripe. The rub is the longer you wait the more of your crop gets stolen and damaged. If your eating them in pie slightly green fruit is ok. Most people eat them to early because they pick them light red but they are a black cherry. Remember the photo they released comparing the romance cherry types.
This is a bowl i picked years ago
In this thread
The light red ones in the bowl are just a little riper than yours now. Since they dont all ripen perfectly the same at once when the majority are darker colored i start picking and pick some lighter colored red ones in the same bowl. You can compare the color now in both photos and then based on pressure decide when to pick. As they darken they attract more attention of birds and other thieves who look for darker fruit. Only you know your situation. Rain will crack the cherries also. On the flip side the longer you wait the better they taste! My cherries still have a ways to go!
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I can graft a sweet cherry onto CJ right? anyone do it?
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Yes.I grafted sweet cherry on carmine jewel. They are doing very well
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I might chop the Lapins…i’d like to save some wood though so i think i’ll chip bud lapins onto cj, and my other sour i have…
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Where did you graft them to? Was it high on the bush, toward the bottom where snow would protect it, or did you cut a large branch in the center and insert some scions. Or did you graft it to a sucker? My sweet cherries haven’t amounted to diddly over the years due to the cold, but if I had them below the snow line, maybe we could get a taste, at least. I have lots of suckers coming up I could use.
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My carmine jewel doesn’t have suckers. I grafted sweet cherry on branches that have about the same size as the scion . I have at least 6 cultivars grafted onto the CJ tree/ bush.
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I have CJ, Juliet and Meteor…so i think i’ll probably bud onto all 3. I think in the future i’ll build a new sweet cherry but in a different spot so i can cover it easily… I wonder how sour works as a rootstock for sweet…hmmm
I dont like it that the carmine jewell are turning before they size up but its been that kind of a year. Im thankful always for what we have.
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The bushes in the old chicken yard were turning at first but now others are turning. The hotter sunlight is hitting the tops of the bushes in the main row now.The cold wet weather really hung on this year.
If you look closely you can see the leaves developing spots so these bushes will need a fungicide soon but i dont want to spray ripening cherries even with sulphur. Last year was nice because no sprays were needed at all on anything.
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Grabbed about a quart the other day and I think we’ll pick most of the rest of these today. Can’t wait to taste them in a pie.
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@zendog
Those have a nice color now. If you wait much longer you might start getting higher losses. Better to pick a little early but have them in the bucket! Those look just about right! The few light colored stragglers i would leave for another day. The strawberries at the base are a smart way to utilize space!
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Thanks @clarkinks . We picked a bunch and left a quart or two on the bushes to get really ripe and see how they taste. But at least all these are safely in the house. Now to get pitting… And pie-ing.
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Those look really nice @zendog! They make a delicious pie! Hot cherry pie with a scoop of vanilla icecream on the side is about as close to heavan as we can get in this world. Once you have more coming in you can juice some and they make a thick rich juice that cannot be beat.
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90 degree weather is starting to turn a greater number of the cherries! June 1st hardly seems late enough. @zendog your right the key is first fill the buckets like you said and then experiment with what you can afford to lose.
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We picked our Carmine Jewel crop today. They were very similar to Zendog’s in how far along they were (no surprise given we are basically neighbors). I had hoped to wait another week but I saw a chipmunk inside my bird nets eating cherries this morning and decided not to wait.
I will post a few pictures tomorrow. We have plenty of cherries for a few pies off of two 4 year old bushes, we would have had more were it not for PC, birds, and the chipmunk.
I am looking forward to next year when I hope to have a considerably larger crop of CJ and perhaps some Juliet cherries.
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