I think my Carmine Jewel has pollination issue. Some years lots of flowers, not many fruits set. I added Montmorency to Carmine Jewel this year. It doesn’t hurt to add Juliet next year if they pollinate each other.
Could be a lack of insect activity from cold/rain some years during bloom?
how old is the tree? mine didn’t give a big crop until it hit 5 yrs. lots of flowers earlier but they never set many fruit.
For me it was four of five years too. It produces a lot. Loving it. Here it is right now. About 80% of the flowers are not open yet. What a beast!
i lost half my carmine last year because the snow melting split it in half. it once looked just like yours but bigger. its since threw up 3 suckers on the side that the other half tree once was so should fill back in. now i have a unbalanced tree. my Romeo did the same. damn snow! still got a great crop off them.
My Juliet set a lot of fruit, but it’s still early. It only stopped blooming last week. My Romeo, which is less than half the size, is blooming now.
We never get any fruit off of either because of the birds.
Here’s a couple of pics, one is Juliet buds, and the other my Romeo blooming.
I agree about the apples, they are blooming profusely here. Here’s some pics of our really old apple trees that were planted decades ago.
We had drought conditions one year. The tree died (Carmine Jewel) I didn’t replace it although I love the fruit. Really flavorful.
I also have two Monty’s at my cottage and back here I have a wowza. At the end of the first season I accitently mowed it down!
It did recover. About ten days behind Juliet in flowering. It produced about 50 cherries last year. I should get about 150 this year. Cherries are big. Tastes a lot like Juliet.
Should be over 10 years, I lost track of the exact years.
How do you keep the birds off them? Do you net them, or does your dogs guard them? We never get any fruit off ours. For one thing the Juliet is too big to net, it’s probably 7ft tall and 4ft wide.
I do net but not these trees. I don’t know why but the birds only go for the sweet cherries. Netting my sweet cherries is difficult. I use a 30x30 foot net. I get my wife to help me with long stakes as we place it over the tree. My nets are like five years old. Those green American bird nets are awesome!
I also use a second 30x30 net to go over six blueberry plants.
I don’t need help here because of how I fold the net. Although it helps to have two people to fold it.
I spread the net out all the way into a 30x30 square. Take the left upper and lower end and fold halfway in. Do fold to the middle. Same with the right side. Repeat till it’s about a foot wide. Then roll it up. To use you can throw over a tree, unfold left then right etc. it works!
On my blueberries I have pvc arches and walk and toss over each arch. Then center and unfold. The arches are eight feet high so I can walk underneath once net is up.
On trees I tie net around trunk with rope
On the blueberries I use garden staples where needed to close it up. Any opening traps birds in there. Use twist ties to repair net.
Hey Bob a 15x15 inch piece net will probably work for those trees. If it’s squirrels though. As they like cherries too. They may rip the net up.
Thanks I’ll keep that in mind. Squirrels get my apples and peaches, but the birds get the cherries and berries. For some reason my blackberries escape most varmit pilfering.
That’s a sturdy little tree. Are those pink peach blooms on the left?
Yes! Hey impressive you are becoming an expert!
I grow a couple peach seedlings in root pouches and that is one. Here they are, one has Hollywood plum grafted on it.
I have a small yard so trying to find easy ways to increase fruit production. These fruited last year too (4th leaf this year)
And the peaches were excellent.
Those root pouches are 25 and 30 gallon. They really bonsai the peaches.
The peaches are awesome off these potted peaches
Well yeah I know about peach blooms, I have 4 trees. They bloomed this year, but a lot dropped their blossoms, probably due to cold and too much rain during bloom.
The ones that do survive probably won’t survive the squirrels. Stupid tree rats…
My Juliet finally has cherries this year, about 50 of them. However they’re already colouring up (from the sun). It’s only mid June and the cherries are supposed to ripen in early August up where I am (zone 5, Canada). The birds are already pecking them. I suppose I could net the plant but it’s always such a hassle now that it’s gotten large. Is it normal that they start to turn red this early?
A lot of people in the US are running about a month ahead of usual because of a warmer than usual Spring.
Yes, Juliet turns reddish early on while sizing up. That’s when you need to net or use scare tape.
Keep in mind, these sour cherries are not big at all compared to sweet cherries. It is about 1/3 or 1/2 the size of store bought sweet cherries.
Carmine Jewel is even smaller than Juliet.