The CHE that I grafted to OO spring 2024 is looking good.
Setting CHE fruit.
My Older CHE has a good fruit set this year.
TNHunter
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Got some takes on those CD scions. I also have Norris and the Edible Landscaping variety if you want to try them in the future.
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Mine has grown super slowly, I think it’s a Norris female. At this rate it will be a decade to fruit haha
Just checked my email, it is indeed a Norris from Cricket hill. It was tiny and has not even doubled in size since October 2023
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California Dreaming is eager to please. The CD scions I just grafted this year are already loaded with little fruit. I know they will drop, but it’s nice to see they want to fruit. My other varieties don’t have anything on them. Trev how long did it take your CD to hold fruit?
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In year 3 it set fruit … some turned reddish color but it dropped it all.
In year 4.. it set fruit.. it turned red… about half of it dropped.. the other half remained and ripened.
Since then it has set and not dropped… ripened it all.
TNHunter
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Noticed my CHE fruit is showing color today.
8/10/2026
This year looks to be my most abundant crop yet. Good size too.
TNHunter
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Guessing that’s CD. Give us a taste test later when they are ripe.
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My CHE (California Dreaming seedless) has larger fruit on it this year than in the past.. and lots of it too.
Found a few ripe today. Delicious. Nice texture. Watermelon/Raspberry flavor rich flavor like syrup. The texture and syrup is more like a fig than a Watermelon.
TNHunter
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Oddly the fruit is still hanging onto my new CD grafts. Not looking anything like yours though. I read an article from someone growing a bunch of varieties and they said that they only had two that they liked. CD and Norris. I’ve got CD, Norris, and EL.
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@Robert.. my CHE was started in spring of 2020. So.. it is in year 7 now. The fruits are more abundant and larger than ever.
Perhaps it takes them about that long to really mature.. and start reaching their potential.
The early fruits that I tried yesterday were excellent. It is usually the later ripening fruit that taste that good. Over the past 2 or 3 years the flavor just keeps getting richer.
It reminds me more and more of a fig in flavor as it has matured. It is an awesome rich syrup flavor now.
Once they turn dark red.. some will stay like that for a month or more.. and remain quite firm. Others will soften up and get juicy.
You can’t really tell by color that they are ripe/ready.. you have to tell my touch.. a gentle fingertip squeeze.
Once dark red and soft sometimes squirting juice out on your fingers… they are ready.
They are a little like figs.. in that you have to wait for them to soften up before they are ripe.
TNHunter
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Have you had any problem with deer eating leaves or fruit? Thinking I’m going to graft a few more CD’s next spring. They seem to fruit faster and everyone likes them the most (at least the few that have tasted a couple varieties). Over the winter I can hook you up with some H120 (or whatever) sticks for more CD if your interested.
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@Robert.. I noticed today that deer had ate a few leaves and some limb tips on my older CHE.
It has never had a cage and they have never bothered it much.
Most of my fruit bearing limbs are higher than the deer normally reach here.
They do that to my mulberries too… Just eat some leaves off the lower branches.
I will be glad to send you more CHE scion if you need it this winter.
I will be grafting 100-46 to a wild dv out in my orchard… but I have several nice wild dv in the edge of my woods that I could graft H120 too.
TNHunter
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