I’m OK with being stubborn for a tree or two.
You have to have a few experiments going on to keep things interesting.
It can get quite hot here and dry… it is always mulched good but not really watered during dry spells.
It does not meet my… has to grow like a weed and produce good fruit standard. If we were keeping this home… i would try completely top working it over to Monty. Perhaps better luck with tart cherry.
I knew that success with a sweet cherry here was a longshot. Each year our Walmart gets in those bags of big deep purple sweet cherries… that are soooo good.
That is why I gave Lapins a shot.
I tried an apricot here too… it rejected southern TN also.
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Lapins takes longer than a lot of other varieties to fruit.
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Since I have the little tree on a decent rootstock and can control the root moisture (it’s in a raised bed), I can add as few other varieties to it with little effort or cost.
That all assumes it survives…which is not a forgone conclusion.
Like @fruitnut said, I am confused why you don’t even see blooms on your Lapins - blooms converting to fruit is another story. My guess is also, it is really water starved. Mulch is not of much use if you are having a dry spell and the soil underneath goes bone dry. For eg, you can pile as much mulch as you want in CA, but all plants needs irrigation in summer (except for some natives).
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@californicus … apples peaches persimmons che jujube plums mulberries raspberries blackberries blueberries strawberries goumi grapes muscadine (and probably a few other things I forgot) produce just fine here with no irrigation all year when mulched well.
In a normal year… we get plenty of rain especially in spring summer winter… fall can be dry.
In the spring… i regularly start new fruit trees, bushes, cane fruit, vines, etc… with one watering at planting time.
Pretty much everything I start gets lots of compost added then a nice layer of wood chips.
If the lapins is stressed… it sure does not show it… it is a very pretty tree… nice and healthy looking.
It has some very nice fruit spurs on it… gets my hopes up every spring… then nothing but leaves.
In year 2 and 3… it did produce a half dozen blossoms… but no fruit. Year 4 and 5 no blossoms.
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I won’t compare sweet cherries to other species as they are more finicky. Having said that, your second point is very true. With water stress, you will see curling and dry leaves, early defoliation and other classic signs. I agree, it can’t be that. Have you tried any low nitrogen, high PK fertilizers? Sometimes too much nitrogen can make trees put more energy on vegetative growth.
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FWIW I’ve had a Lapins cherry in Irvine (Zone 10) in CA. It’s been in a pot for the last 2-3 years. It seems to finally be showing some buds this year so we will see. But this thread doesn’t make me hopeful 
…
Is anyone producing cherries in SoCal? If so, what varieties?
I’ve also seriously considered a) getting rid of it, and b) throwing ice into the pot every day for a week or two in the evening covered with a blanket.
It’s now in a spot that won’t get any afternoon Sun, so it’s protected from the harsh heat here.
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My Lapins today March 12… here in southern middle TN.
Still happy, healthy, no sign of stress…
Started it in 2018… so this 7th leaf for it.
NO FRUIT yet.
Its branches are covered in these… every spring I think surly it will bloom and fruit this year.
I added 5 grafts of Montmorency to it last spring… adding more this spring.
TNHunter
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Ok… ok… now I have to take back all the bad things I said about my Lapins cherry.
Today I found this happening.
Looks like it is finally going to do a significant bloom… and hopefully fruit.
Happy to see many blossoms happening !!!
TNHunter
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@TNHunter
Those are a ridiculous amount of blooms in a small space!
Maybe, if mine survives, my Lapins will give me a show too.
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Awesome, mine still waking up im in north FL.
My royal crimson has produced about 17 to 18 blossoms thos year. I think my tree os 5 years old now. But had no growth last year LIKE ALL my trees. Also year two was a loss and almost dies cause of poor transplant. Hoping for pollination now. Will see. I thonk the secret now will be to get the tree much bigger.
My lapins also did not grow last uear. A vad case of thrips seems to have stunted all my trees. That and the weather. But I’m thinking with size and a 440 hours like we got this year and then not a lot of rain at bloom time should work. At least the crimson royal. I’ll update on my lapins if anything interesting ever happens.
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