Impressive row. When I see all the sprouts my thoughts immediately go to how easy it would be to plant almost an unlimited area of CJ.
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Thank you yes it would be easy to do a large planting. Like so many fruits the research i did with these is very valuable to a lot of people. Hopefully i can do more in my lifetime to help bring orchards into my area. Many areas now can grow fruit that never could do it before.
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General question!
I love sour cherry, and added a second Montmancy 2years ago.
With the M sour cherries, there is a chemical reaction that happens when they are cooked. The flavour of the fresh is almost completely different than after cooking. I would never consider eating any of them fresh since it’s the cooked flavour is what we like. (and fresh they are dull and watery)
Is it the same with these bush cherries? I’m just getting a bit thrown by all the talk about eating them fresh. Sours are not for fresh eating! At least, that’s how it’s always been done that I’ve seen.
I’d consider adding some, but only if they taste like proper sours after cooking.
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The bush cherries have a higher brix but about the same acid. Better fresh than Montmorancy but still best for cooking. I can say cooked the flavor is very good for the bush cherries. Color remains very deep too. Flesh is dark.
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I would say you have two main things in sour cherries tartness and astringency and some of them are high in both and some are more tart and less astringent. A very ripe or overripe Montmorency grown here is very tart pretty sweet and very slightly astringent. Its amazing for fresh eating. I have other sour cherries that i love like Surefire but it is so astringent i cant handle more than 4-5 overripe ones at a time and even then i kind of feel like i took a shot of liquor. Cooking and proccessing helps mellow both but especially the astringency.
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@Viridian
You brought up a question that many have asked before Montmorency versus Carmine Jewell . The question will never go away because they are both first class fruit Carmine jewel - how sour? here is more information Carmine Jewell is living up to its famous reputation. A little more information 2017 Carmine Jewell Cherries! Wow almost ripe!. This is some additional information My "Romance series" cherries - #90 by Drew51 and even more Carmine Jewel - My Take Away (With Pics) and even more Which is Your Favorite: Sour (Tart) Cherry, Bush Cherry or Cornelian Cherry? - #7 by clarkinks . I love both cherries in very different ways.
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before these cherries , people thought you couldn’t grow them here. now we can. I’ve been spreading the word and several neighbors have bought and planted some. wait until i show up at the farmers market with baskets of fresh cherries. i think they will be in high demand. reason why I’m looking to buy some more land to start a small orchard of these, honeyberries and hazels. i don’t remember, did you net these to keep birds out?
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No i use mulberries to distract the birds. They prefer mulberries to cherries. Birds always eat darker fruit such as sakatoons opposed to lighter colored fruit in my experience. Perhaps we should listen to tbe birds about what is better for us.
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How much sour cherries (pounds or gallons) did you harvest last year, Clark? Did you sell most of it?
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@subdood_ky_z6b
We seem to use those cherries so easily we never wind up selling them. I dont know for sure i could say 40+ gallons but i dont even think they all got picked. We had more fruit than we knew what to do with. Im drinking some of the juice now which seems to be how i like to use them. We freeze gallons and gallons of cherry juice. Its more of a concentrate so its best with a little apple juice.
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Yeah, the juice is good for you. You probably will never have to worry about getting gout. Supposed to help with sleep, too.
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I don’t have gout and do seem to sleep good so there might be something to that.
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This is an interesting strategy. Do you have the mulberries planted near or far from the cherries? And are they tall mulberries or a more dwarf form? We want to add mulberries eventually to actually eat ourselves but I’m intrigued now by the idea of leaving one unprotected on purpose to keep the birds happy and away from other fruits…
We are getting our first Carmine Jewel this year. So glad to see such good reports of it settling in and becoming a profuse bush. We actually like Montmorency fresh – hey, both my husband and I love sour gummi candies so we prefer a little sour with our sweet! haha. So we’re really looking forward to snacking on some as well as making pies and jam.
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The mulberries are very close by. In my part of the world mulberries are plentiful and grow profusely. Land is equally plentiful. I allow mulberries to grow in most of fence rows so i have over 100 producing mulberries. The male mulberries i frequently graft over to females. A large part of my success is my desire for peace so the birds, coyotes etc. And i live in a fragile peace where things are in balance and we all have to much food. The birds eat mulberries and blackberries and frequently plant a new patch of berries for me. Possoms, racoons, deer etc. come here to but they do not steal my fruit i leave the windfalls for them and i eat the fruit picked from the tree. The rabbits sometimes chew on a tree or something else happens but mostly things are ok. The racoons and i have an understanding about things like the corn patch, i use an electric fencer they dont like being shocked. I put tree guards on when trees are small so its hard for things to girdle my trees. I use callery and bet pear rootstocks which are thorny until i graft them. I live by my knowledge of the fruits, land, and animals and it keeps them alive as well. I listen closely to the insects, diseases, animals etc. If they all pick on the same tree perhaps that tree is what is out of place and im in the wrong trying to grow it. Most people dont see things the way i do but if the insects eat a tree right beside one they are leaving alone and the insects job is to target weak, diseased plants perhaps they are doing me a favor. If trees live with minimal effort on my part like mulberry and carmine jewell cherries maybe i should plant more. No peace ever lasts forever but i enjoy it while i have it.
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thats the mentality i have. i give a small tree just enough care to get a good start. its pretty much on its own after that. survival of the fittest. i grow a food forest not a orchard. I’m always adding plants to help benefit other plants and trees. I’m still adding a few trees here and there but mostly focusing on smaller edible plants and fruit producing ground covers to fill in under the tress and bigger bushes. when in done, it should need minimal input from me.
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I just like to grow things. I try to learn from it. I admit to bucking the system though. I’m at my computer, and if I turn I around I see this.
That cacti I bought in 1978. It’s been living in Michigan all that time. We do have cacti that will survive outside all year here, and I have one. But this ain’t one!
So some of my growing is not natural. Nothing very natural about this
It needs top and root pruning, I will wait till spring. In the house now.
Almost all of my fruit trees have grafts. So that would never happen either. But nature cannot be ignored for sure. You can fool it though 
It’s not nice to fool mother nature! What commercial was that?
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ohh i have some stuff i fiddle with and i do spray the fruit trees when they need it. the food forest design is mostly to use plants to help out other plants and keep good bugs and animals around to keep diseases and fruit damage to a minimum. i also will fertilize my fruits for more production where as in a food forest you generally let nature take its course. but lets say i go away for awhile, i won’t see much change when i get back because the food forrest system is designed to be self sustaining like a real forest is. I’ve got a lot of ideas from youtube and premies.com as well. planning on adding some siberian pea shrubs to my rows for the nitrogen fixing and feed for the chicks that i will let free range in there once i get all my wood chips covered with ground covers.
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speaking of cacti, i just ordered some that grow here and are making a small rock garden in the front yard back planted with lavender I’m growing indoors to put out in spring. I’m just worried we get too much rain for them to survive here. we’ll see.
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Yes I do that too, and it works OK not great. I do have ton’s of bees here, but not a great deal of predator insects. Here too most problem animals are limited. Like no deer at all.
My dogs keep the rest out and nets too.
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yeah. not many deer. more moose but they don’t stick around. biggest issue here is the darn crows! i control them and the squirrels with the .22 as my house over looks the property which is surrounded with big red pines. they are easy targets when in there scoping out my fruit. 
wifes not to fond of me shooting out the window at 6am. lol!
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