Lapins Cherry tree is a low chill variety. I’m in Pensacola Florida. Anyone heard of growing Lapins Cherry in the southeast? Says its good for my area but I’m wondering if they consider the humidity.
Any thoughts on this?
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How many chill hours do you get there?
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500-600
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Won’t work
Thanks, do you know why it won’t work please?
Just wondering if these people are just trying to sell cherry trees in Florida or if there is some real evidence they will produce cherries. Check this out
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People been trying for 10 years in Houston and no one has got any cherries from Royal Lee & Minnie Royal. 400 chill hours in California is different than 400 hours on the Gulf Coast. IMHO they are trolling for suckers.
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It grows great in southwest WI and we get a lot of chill hours. I highly doubt it will do well that far south.
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I actually bought a Lapins and a Royal Crimson from Green Genie last year.
Both are leafing out this year but no blossoms. They are now three years old. So it will take another year or two before they will start producing if they produce.
The owner admits it is an experiment. She has a bunch of these trees still at her nursery but sadly she is in the woods and they get very little sunlight. Still I visited her nursery today and found that almost all of them had woken up and a few had flowers this year. I didn’t see any cherries though. Most of her trees right now are either three or two years old.
My are planted in full sun (High Springs | Alachua) area. With spraying I can control the fungus. I had a bad transplant on my Royal Crimson so not sure it will survive. It almost died cause I lost half the roots while attempting to transplant, then got bacterial Canker. I burned and cut it out but it was in the trunk so I lost about half my bark on one side. But hey its alive still. My Lapins after recovering from first transplant shock and then the June Bugs grew well last year. It woke up about two weeks after the Royal Crimson.
My recommendation is to try planting these in partial shade. I know they can survive in the woods somehow and I know they can survive full sun though the leaves droop really bad at the maximum heat parts of the day. Shade starting at say 1 PM in the summer would be ideal for these trees.
My only concern about Pensacola area is that if you are near the water you might not really get the chill hours.
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Hi everyone I am new here and didn’t know where to post so I posted here I hope that it is ok. I am new to gardening and live in zone 7 I am about 50miles south of Nashville in Columbia Tennessee. I bought a Lapins cherry in 2019 and haven’t been able to get it to flower. I have been battling pest constantly. I attempted to prune it last fall and I’m pretty sure I did it wrong. My husband has nicked it twice with the lawn mover too. It looks in pretty poor shape right now. Any general advice would be helpful. I will include a few photos if I can figure out how.
I started a lapins cherry here in southern middle TN in 2018.
No fruit yet. It is a freeloader so far.
Did produce a few blossoms in year 3 and 4… but none this year… nothing but leaves.
I grafted 5 scions of Montmorency to it this spring…all took. May add more of those next spring… i think tart/pie cherries are supposed to do better in the SE than sweet.
My lapins is healthy, good size, has what looks like fruit spurs… but has refused to fruit so far.
I am in zone 7a.
@Alyoop — just noticed you are in Columbia TN… I am about 35 miles west of you in the big city of Hohenwald.
No luck with my Lapins (yet) either. Mine did bloom (just a few blossoms) in year 3 and 4… but none at all this year, despite having what looks like fruit spurs on it. All that came out of those spurs was leaves. Perhaps it just does not like our southern heat and humidity ? IDK… but I am getting tried of mine freeloading… working on top working it over to pie cherry.
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Interesting that many of you don’t even get bloom on Lapins. Here in Bay Area, Lapins is a reliable producer in both high chill (~800-1000) and low chill (400-600) years. Clearly chill hours in CA is not the same as chill hours at other places. But I am surprised heat and humidity are mentioned as factors. Doesn’t the chill accumulation happen only in winter? Our winters are quite wet and there is good amount of sun during the day. If these conditions don’t affect chill accumulation in CA, what is different in TN Z7A that affects a cherry tree to blossom?
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That is medium chill, not low chill.
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So I noticed these buds on my wee little Lapins cherry.
Not having tried growing cherry until this year, I don’t know what flower/fruiting buds look like in early fall.
Please see the two photos. Are those flower buds?
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Bump
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Not flower buds. I don’t have a picture but you’re not close yet. It is interesting that Lapins won’t even flower in TN but does in medium chill areas of CA. CA has better conditions for chilling. The same thing happens with apples. The SE gets some cool below 45 but I think it’s too warm in between the cool periods.
@Shibumi … my Lapins last spring after early pruning.
It was started in 2018… nice size tree, healthy.
It has lots of… what appears to be fruit spurs on it…
But… above is what all those fruit spurs did… pushed out nothing but leaves.
IDK…
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Thanks. So they are spurs, just vegetative for a few more years. I knew it didn’t make sense to be otherwise.
I have nothing to compare to as the pear, apple, and other stone fruit tend to set at least flowers the spring after the spurs form.
That picture does appear to show flower buds. The fact that they didn’t flower could say they didn’t get enough chilling. That would seem surprising to me in TN. It might also be due to excessive heat in the prior summer. That doesn’t seem likely either. CA has a lot of heat and they get better bloom.
Another factor that can damage sweet cherry flower buds is excessive drought stress in summer. That damages next years flowers. That’s the major factor that reduces fruit set in my greenhouse as I deficit water for increased brix. Doesn’t seem likely in the SE.
Suffice it to say that sweet cherries don’t like hot humid conditions with mild winters. They’re more at home in the northern states with long cold winters.
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