I am also growing the most expensive cherries sold by Costco. It happens to be my most productive and reliable cherry cultivar. Through low chilling hours, hails, heavy rains and strong winds, it has always produced fruits enjoyed by many including the birds!
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Something about these light colored cherries makes them resilient. I have White Gold and the cherries are awesome. It is a cross of Emperor Francis and Stella. Emperor Francis is grown a lot around here, a wonderful cherry. I think it does better than Rainier in this area. But both are grown all the same. My White Gold tree has a few hundred on it now.
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With lots of light and fully ripe Rainier can be darker. Still far from my favorite cherry. Too soft and not enough acid to go along with the sweetness. My Bings at 25-32 brix plus a good acid kick are much better. In fact nothing is much if any better.
Bing and Rainier on the same tree.
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Utah Giant is supposed to be better. I also wonder about the new ones out of NY. Those really don’t look like Rainier to me. Plus the Rainier’s here are very firm, as firm as any cherry i ever had. I hardly ever buy them as here Bing’s are much cheaper. Some of the ones here though might be Emperor Francis sold as Rainier. DWN has this comment about UT
The industry favorite sweet cherry in Utah. Larger, firmer, more flavorful than Bing or Lambert. Good canner. Does not double.
In DWN formal taste tests, Utah Giant has been one of the most consistently high-scoring varieties, per the 2014 DWN Fruit Tasting Report.
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But as I remember none of the cherries rate very high. They are probably rating normal commercial cherries at 16-20 brix.
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Here’s a report I did earlier: Rainier cherry brix vs harvest date
Rainier cherries are designated premium quality at 19 brix. That’s for purposes of the commercial trade. They are picking too early but have to in order to get them to market in decent shape.
My Rainiers in 2011 went from 21 brix on May 16 to 29 brix on May 28. Commercially they would have picked before May 16 or possibly when they hit 19 so they could claim premium quality…
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What about frozen sweet cherries? I buy them once in awhile and have noticed (the brands i’m getting locally) originate from either Greece or Turkey. Some seem very sweet///have no idea the variety they are growing in those countries. I wonder if they can let them ripen more before freezing? I actually prefer cherries frozen over fresh.
WG is the only cherry I have now, and the tree produces so much I canned a couple dozen pints last year. Enjoyed them all winter.
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I don’t know the process, but can say that cherries bought around here just can’t get better. Extremely wonderful, but I’m not driven solely on sweetness, more on depth of flavor. I have to taste cherries before I buy them. Some suck, you can’t tell by looking. I only buy local cherries, mostly from the Amish. I still have to figure out when to pick White Gold. I doubt it will be a good year here, as we have been super wet. Although it is early for peaches and plums, so who knows?
wish they had a sweet cherry that grow this far north. although I’ve heard romance series i have are close in taste to some sweet cherries. we shall see. sweet cherries, when you can get them, go for $5 a lb. here.
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I try to go to eastern market a few times a year. I get cherries from the Amish there. Prices are better on most items there. Best cherries I ever had. You can get fresh Amish chicken too for dirt cheap prices. I buy and freeze a bunch. So much better than grocery store fuel injected chicken.
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Going to taste Burgundy Pearl this year, Ebony and Radiance next year probably.
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You could try Lapins//has been a very reliable cropper here so far over the past 5+ years.
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how are they for diseases and how long before they crop?
I haven’t seen them drop. It’s quite resilient with many diseases in our area. My only real problem is the birds. It shrivels when heatwaves come. Rainier Cherries takes a couple of years before they start to produce nice crops. Other cherries on Mahaleb rootstock takes 7 years.
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thats not a issue here as our temps rarely hit 80 in the summer. cold hardiness is more critical . we have a month or more of -30 - -35f in winter which kills everything above the snow line that isnt z 3 hardy.
I do love bings but a dark red Rainier with some crunch is a fine piece of fruit. When we go to La Luz, NM to pick cherries I hunt hard for the darker Rainiers. They never make it into the bucket.
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hmmm/…yeah that might kill a sweet cherry. I haven’t had -30F in a while…like a long while. Some -20Fs … Disease? All depends on how dry it is…i’ve had beautiful clean cherries and years that the tree was a breeding ground for brown rot due to non stop rains.
We have had a rather poor cherry season here but i was able to taste these varieties last week. They were not all perfectly ripe but close. I find that the Royal Rainer is quite a bit firmer and tastier than Rainer, which i know longer grow because of that. As was the case last year, my Bings and Utahs were the most flavorful, around 30 brix with a nice acid kick! With all the acid these cherries have its amazing how much sugar they get. This was the first year I have tested brix on cherries. Following those two the Vans and Royal Rainers were very good as well. Lappins may be the largest along with the Utahs, and the others were all good. We went to Mikes U pick in Brentwood about 3 weeks ago and I picked 6lbs of Corals on opening day. 4 of us ate all 6lbs in a day and a half before leaving on vacation. These were better than my Corals, averaged about 26 brix and larger and firmer than ours. Our tree is young and they should only get better in the future. I believe the ones at Mikes were hit with girbralic acid, improving firmness. Highly recommend Mikes U pick, very nice cherries! A few pics for you, 6lbs of Corals from Mikes and my own cherry tasting from my yard.
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I love when someone takes the time to label and show fruits with the detail you did. Thanks. They all look great!
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