Juliet Cherry

Mine are blooming heavy too along with Carmine jewel and Romeo. Hoping for a first taste on all. Just a couple blooms on wowza.

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Mine is about 7-8 ft. Last year, it could be late freeze that affected fruit setting. Lost 70-80% of sweet cherries to it last year.

I think even Juliet, it is sour to eat out of hand. I will dry them and use them that way

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Mine are still small, probably 3-4 foot, but they are sure loaded with blooms. I bet dehydrated ones are great. My family got a harvest right freeze dryer, so I’m hoping to try a few on them.

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I just planted one this spring. The tree Gurneys sent is about 5’ tall and has a lot of blooms. Maybe not loaded, but way more than I initially thought as it was budding out. If it sets any cherries, I’ll have to be strong and strip them all off!

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Keep the fruit. I don’t think it will negatively affect your 5 ft tall Juliet. If Gurney sent you 2-3’ tree, you may want to remove fruit.

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I’ve thought about it. My only concern is the roots were probably better sized for a 3’ tree, so I feel like it would be better for the energy to go there.

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That’s true. Forgot about a root volume vs the above-ground size of the tree. If the ratio is too big, you should remove some of the top off.

@ctduckhunter , my friend has a freeze dry machine. He freeze dried several fruit for me. At first, I was excited about eating those freeze-dried fruit. Their taste and texture is different. After a while, the newness was gone and the texture of freeze-dried fruit started to wear on me. Someone said it tasted like cardboard. I agree it did remind me of eating styrofoam or cardboard!!

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Really, wow! I haven’t tried a bunch of things with the freeze dryer yet, but I thought the pineapple and strawberries were damn good! I tried some mango that I wasn’t impressed with, but not sure I have had any mango that I have really liked.

He freeze-dried American persimmons and a few other fruit for me (I forgot what they were). I enjoyed them at first but later the dryness of the texture made me lose interest.

My thought is that some fruit may taste good freeze-dried, Others may not. Also, taste is subjective. You may like them all but I may only like certain fruit. I don’t turn it down whenever he gives them to me, though :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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Freeze dried berries and tart cherries are great added to stuff like banana bread or muffin batter. They bake up juicy without making the dessert soggy.

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my juliet has been letting older branches die. it did it once last year and it just did it again. it has a ton of fresh growth at the same time so I think it’s happy overall. is this common with these?

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Do the flowers get brown and die,along with the branches?

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no just general die back. this spring it was branches that never woke up, last year it was mid summer

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The dieback is not normal. Maybe because of your warm zone? Developed for zone 2 and 3. I’m in 6a and it does great here. Or maybe it’s some form of blight?

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@z0r

It is normal to have die back.
Untreated leaf spot will cause it even killing the entire trees frequently. Spray with something like immunox /captan as needed. Sour Cherry Leaf Spot . If i do not spray I lose trees. Friends nearby have lost 20-30 trees this way.

I’m also curious about the flavor, and not very concerned with how sweet they get. I’d love to read comparisons of the flavor of Juliet, Carmine Jewel, Montmorency, etc.

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@clarkinks ,
I think you meant to say, it is not normal for a healthy Juliet to have branches die back but it is normal for a diseased Juliet to have branches die back.

Cherry leaf spot is a common cherry disease. Left untreated, it will affect the tree’s health. Fortunately, it can be easily treated with fungicide. We don’t know for sure yet what problem @z0r ‘s Juliet has.

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After spending a year and a half potted, Juliet was planted in the fall of 2018 and has given only a handful of fruit to date. She was 7 feet tall and in full bloom in early April when 2 frosty nights ended her chance of a good year. She set only a handful of cherries.

Fortunately, her boyfriend Romeo, who is the same age but much smaller, was a little behind in flowering and is now setting what looks to be a good crop. Until now he has produced even fewer cherries than Juliet.

It won’t be the big harvest I’ve been looking forward to, but it will be the best so far. Next year will be the big one…I hope.

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Even in normal years ( no frost, no freeze, etc.), the first couple of years of Juliet flowering (lot of flowers) has not resulted in a lot of fruit set at all.

This has been my and others’ experience up thread as well. @thecityman posted about it, too. I think Juliet (like most fruit trees) needs some maturity to hold on to her fruit.

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Thanks, I believe I was one of the others that posted up thread.
It is a long thread. :wink:

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