Drew,
Blackberries are in bloom which is why they never fail they bloom late and ripen July 1st- August 10th. They hit their peak production July 15th-23rd. I stack my crops to not all ripen at once so CJ first then when that season ends the BB season kicks in. Mulberries are what I start picking next after carmine Jewell if I get time. First I get the cherries off the bushes. Juneberries crop is poor this year. Cj are going into juice , I agree completely they are for processing.i don’t count crops like raspberry, gooseberry, etc because they are not big crops here. CJ and BB are the big crops. Pear crop will be half a dozen 5 gallon buckets so it’s a very small crop. This year I need to make time to harvest fish and my guess is that will be 500-600 pounds but maybe more. The last crop is aronia and they are very heavy. Maybe as many as 30 5 gallon buckets of those berries!
Someone is bound to ask where are the thieves? The thieves are stealing like normal but our little feathered friends don’t realize I’m keeping them busy! The mulberries are being eaten quickly but there are 30 large producing trees and I have not lost a single cherry to them as far as I know.
Jerry,
How are yours doing? This is a huge crop but the cherries are a little smaller than normal. Hope your crop is doing good!
Your cherries look good Jerry you are going to be doing this same thing within the next two weeks so better get ready! I just sent 6 gallons home with my mom to make juice, I’m taking a break and then getting back to picking! I’ll let you know how many gallons I wind up with. They were about twice this sized last year but I expect overall production to be better. Glad they are going into juice.
I harvest strawberries first. Honeyberries next. I’ll
Harvest some strawberries all season. Then Carmine Jewel. Not as many I have little room here, although enough to make jam or whatever strikes me. I was thinking of drying too and will experiment with a few cherries. Looking forward to it.
You all probably noticed the picture with the bad cherry and that is a picture I was trying to get of the fly that sucks juice and lays eggs on the cherries. You really have to work quick in Kansas sometimes! Tried to get a couple pictures of fruit cracking so new members can see what that looks like. Overall the fruit looks excellent!
Clark, I am all for sharing with the wildlife, but my birds are not the sharing kind. I did plant a IE mulberry last year and hope it will help me in the future. Earlier in the thread you spoke of having 30 CJ. How many mulberries have you planted to protect these? Any thoughts on how close or how far away to plant them?
I meant I have 30 mulberries not CJ. I have maybe a row of a dozen CJ. I’ve never transplanted any suckers out but they do spread like crazy and a half dozen new bushes are growing now. I may have as many as 2 dozen CJ by now all together if you count bushes not producing.
When my cherry bushes grow up they want to be just like yours! Plus they said they can’t wait to grow up.
Thanks @Johnnysapples carmine Jewell’s take awhile to really demonstrate what they are so be patient. Once they do get mature the only problem I’ve had with them is trying to pick them all!
I put down some cow manure after putting down a bit of 10/10/10. I had to weed whip because it caused them to respond too. I then berried the ground with a foot of leaves. I’m finding leaves are very useful. Where I dump them in the previous years the trees are just trying to fill them with roots. I have been running leaf mold from three years ago through my shredder and boy do plants like it!
Carmine Jewell love to be fed like you have done. As your likely aware from previous posts I used cow manure and wood chips on the ones in the photos above. There is nothing you could do better than what you did so when they get to the mature stage if you watch out for disease yours will be just like these. In waiting patiently for @IowaJer carmine Jewell’s to get ripe so I can see his harvest this year. His trees look excellent. By the way I back off spraying so these cherries are practically spray free.
I have about 16" of new growth on mine already this year. I have sprayed twice this year. I tied some branches and pulled them outward on some of the ones with lots of growth in the middle. All the branches of new growth is filling in making them more bushy. These are some great cherry threads we have here. I like going through them. You guys have put up some great pictures. I’m going to have to go buy some cherries from the store to satisfy my crave! My pictures of my baby trees will be more of value when I can post progression pictures along with them. I wish I could jump forward about five years!
I am so impressed with these cherry crops. Are they as large as Monmorency, as that is not a very large cherry? Anyone own an automatic cherry pitter?
At their best these cherries are a little smaller than Montmorency. It’s an unnoticeable difference but the problem is the pit is very small on the CJ. Now flesh to pit ratio being good is very good for what I’m doing which is making juice but for pie or jam that’s a big problem. CJ are a jelly lovers dream!
Gotcha! I’ll send you jam if you send me jelly!
I better worry about getting them in the freezer now and then jelly later. Can’t commit to Jelly yet I’m still using frozen cherries from last year I never pitted. Sometimes what I do if I have room is freeze them now and make them into juice and jelly in fall or winter when it’s cold. Saves on heating the house and makes it easier on the juice and jelly maker. When I can in the summer it gets pretty hot and so I try not to do it.