Largest Cherries Ever

General Fruit Growing
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Aside from the suspicion of Google spying on me to present me this story, rather curious about the largest cherry recorded. I haven’t measured the weight of store bought or of the few cherries from my first crop this year, but they are definitely not near “apricot sized.” I’m sure cultural practices, soil, climate, etc play a role but variety seems to run large.

Also wonder how laborious of a process it is to legally import scionwood to the States, the below link has a description of the variety, Carmen, along with many others I haven’t heard of.

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Importing anything plant related is hard because a lot of it can be seized at the border. I have gotten pepper seeds from Australia but it took a month to come and the border at the full rights to take them.

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I’ll research. As I understand it, there is some USDA process to ensure disease/pest control measures are incorporated into the material in quarantine before release.

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Importing illegally is risky as well, even seeds. Plum Pox somehow got into the US and Canada.

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Hi spurious of the hundreds of nurseries in Europe you have chosen the Austrian nursery Schreiber-baum, where I buy some varieties (including cherry trees).
I have in my orchard many of the varieties recently developed in the countries of Eastern Europe, Californian varieties, Italian varieties, Canadian varieties …

Among them the Hungarian Carmen variety (it is a 32-34 mm variety), or the Czech Tamara variety (Tamara also gives a spectacular fruit size).
The fruit size is an important parameter in cherry trees, but it is not fundamental.

And precisely for the ripening date of the Carmen cherry tree, you have these others:

carmen
carmen801×384 46.4 KB

  • Pacific Red
  • Royal Bailey (Royal Hansel)
  • Sweet Lorenz
  • Rocket
  • Celeste Sumpaca

https://battistinivivai.com/it/piante-da-frutto/ciliegio

If I have to choose varieties for those dates, surely I do not choose the Carmen variety as the winning variety

These varieties are winners:

  • Rocket

https://www.cot-international.eu/en/products-overview/7/cherries/19/rocket-cov

Size: very big (32-34 mm)
Firmness: very firm; 78 Durofel
Taste quality: outstanding taste; very sweet: 17 ° Brix
Cracking tolerance: good

  • Pacific Red

https://www.cot-international.eu/en/products-overview/7/cherries/24/pacific-red-cov

Size: big for the season (30- 32 mm)
Firmness: very firm; 85 Durofel
Eating quality: great flavor with 18 ° Brix
Cracking tolerance: good

  • Sweet Lorenz

Fruit size: 30/32 mm
Color: dark red
Firmness: good (67 mesured with the Durofel machine)
Sugar level: 18 ° Brix
Eating qualities: excellent, very sweet, good flavor
Susceptibility to cracking: low susceptibility

If you look at the Carmen variety (look)

  • Carmen

Fruit size: 32/34 mm
Firmness: good (65 mesured with the Durofel machine)
Sugar level: 14 ° Brix
Eating qualities: good, sweet and juicy
Susceptibility to cracking: average

There are three only half good parameters. It has a slightly softer texture than Pacific Red and Rocket, 14º Brix for those time it is a little sweet compared to the three previous ones, and it is a variety only moderately resistant to cracking, so it is not an advisable variety for humid climates, except when it is grown under plastic cover.

It is a cherry that gives a lot of size, recommended, but you already know that Rocket , Pacific Red and Sweet Lorenz are better.

spurious, if you want to eat a cherry that is really incredible, look for this variety:

  • Justyna

https://artevos.de/sortenuebersicht/#Obstart_40&Sorte_Justyna

I assure you that the flavor and texture of this variety will not leave you indifferent (it probably has more than 80 different varieties of cherry trees, and my favorite without a doubt is Justyna)

Regards
Jose

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spurious, as I always have a lot of work, I didn’t have time to finish.
There is a Czech variety, which is super-interesting, since it is another of the varieties that meets all the requirements of a good cherry( whit very big size ) , and it is a variety that has been studied in the United States.
I am referring to the Czech variety Tamara (obtained at the Research and Breeding Institute of Pomology in Holovousy).
It cannot be compared with the previous varieties of cherries, since it is not at the same ripening dates.

  • Tamara

Tamara
Tamara898×541 161 KB

Tamara matures 15 days after Carmen (approximately 20-25 days with respect to the Burlat standard)
It is very productive, offers a very large fruit size (32-33 mm), it is a firm and crisp cherry, with a high brix of 18º, and an adequate level of acidity, which gives it a marked delicious cherry flavor.
It is not immune to cracking, but it is quite resistant.

Look at this document

Tamara is a variety that I have in very high esteem, and it is a variety from my point of view highly recommended for amateurs .

Regards
Jose

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Spurious attention, to the new varieties obtained at the University of Bolonia (Italy), the Sweet from Alma Mater series.
There are 7 varieties already on the market, and some more varieties are in the process of being commercialized.

I’m going to give you two images of them, and they correspond to the varieties Sweet Lorenz, and Sweet Stephany (the size is not what is really interesting, what is interesting is the taste)

  • Sweet Lorenz

sweet lorenz
sweet lorenz1024×686 103 KB

  • Sweet Stephany

Sweet Stephany
Sweet Stephany1024×768 75.9 KB

Regards
Jose

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@anon47724557 @elivings1 I was not suggesting illegal import but rather an approved regulatory approach, though realize that might mean this is infeasible. I just don’t know enough at this point whether this means the idea is futile.

@Jose-Albacete interesting proliferation of varieties. I agree that I’d personally not be as interested in fruit size as taste and am not growing enough cherries to care at this point at having so many varieties to cover each potential harvest week, but my climate isn’t horrible for stone fruit so I suspect many of the varieties working in Southern Europe would work here on the west coast US. Are the varieties you describe widely available to non-commercial buyers (plant material, not fruit)?

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spurious, it is interesting to have at least 6 or 8 varieties of cherry trees from the earliest ripening variety to the later ripening variety (choosing wisely the best varieties).
The belief is that the cherry harvest period is very short, and practically all cherries have a very close ripening date, but this is not the case, since the first good variety would be the California SMS-280, which has very early maturation. , about 10 before Burlat (approximately May 20), and as a very late harvest cherry variety, it would be the Canadian variety 13S2101 Sovereign, which has ultra-late ripening dates about 50 days after Burlat (approximately 5-7 August ) .
So we have a cherry harvest period of two and a half months.

This is the earliest variety

  • SMS-28 (from Californian breeder SMS Unlimited)

https://battistinivivai.com/en/products/sms-280-eng

This is the latest variety

13S2101 Sovereign (Canadian from Pico Sumerland Station)

Between the harvest period of these two varieties, for a cherry blossom a amateur he can have in his orchard perfectly other 6 - 8 good varieties of staggered maturation to cover the whole period (always "top varieties)

Regarding whether these varieties whit royalty are available for purchase in small quantities , I will explain how it works.

Let’s start from the base that the payment for the royaly, is a money destined to the breeders for their “enormous” work and economic expense to develop a variety and to help these breeders to continue researching and obtaining new varieties.

That said, the big farmer who buys 30,000 trees pays the same royalty as the hobbyist who buys 10 trees (of different varieties).
The primary condition they demand is that of “no multiplication” of the variety.

And now we get to the point.

When a variety comes from a breeder in a country outside the European Union, it needs an “editor”, for example, the editor of the cherries of SMS Unlimited (Californian company) is the company Cot Internacional, and in turn this editor , have nurseries for distribution.

The policy of the nurseries is not to sell varieties with royalties to the fans (it is for economic reasons, since for them it is more profitable to sell large quantities than to prepare small packages for the fans).
Whit a good relationship with the distributing nurseries, it is quite easy to buy any type of fruit variety with royalty in good European nurseries.

Regards
Jose

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Hi again spurious.
By the hair of a bald man hahahaha, the Carmen cherry variety has surpassed Sweet Stephany by a few grams.
Currently the Guinness record falls on Sweet Stephany, but Carmen must be admitted that she is bigger.
Obviously in terms of quality Sweet Stephany is infinitely better than Carmen.
I leave you a video of Sweet Stephany dated March 16, 2021, while the news about Carmen is dated July 15, 20121.

Regards
Jose

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Hello Jose,
Do you have any information regarding of susceptibility to cracking of sweet’s seriese cherrys which you are persanaly tested. In the web diffirent sources provided different information.

BR

Javid

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Javid
Where are you located? If you could put your state and zone, it will be helpful for people to give you advice and suggestions.

Jose is in Spain. His location is dry so it is beneficial to grow stone fruit with much less diseases than we are outside CA and Utah.

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Hi Jose. On paper it looks like Tamara and Royal Helen have the same ripening window between Bing and Skeena. Is this correct? Looking at the patent descriptions, Helen looks to be a bigger and sweeter cherry while Tamara is more crack resistant. Did Tamara just have a poorly written description ? Are you growing these both and if so, what is your opinion on which is the better choice?

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Is there any nurseries that stock Tamara scionwood/is it available in the States?

I think it’s super cool there are some varieties that are more regionally locked but would love to figure out how to get ahold of it/collect one

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Hi Dan.
It is incorrect .
Tamara matures 4 or 5 days before Bing.
Royal Helen does mature at the same time as Skeena.

Yes, of course I have both varieties in my orchard.
Both Tamara and Royal Helen are fantastic in their maturation dates.
Tamara competes with Summit, Summit is an excellent variety but not very productive, Royal Helen competes with the Italian Sweet Stephany, and in this case both are very equal (I personally prefer Royal Helen).

They are two obligatory varieties in a good cherry orchard.
Tamara much more resistant to cracking than Royal Helen.
Tamara is licensed to be grown in the United States:

But for now it will only be available to professionals and is not in nurseries for retailers (same old thing).

Best regards
Jose

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Is there a chance to have the tree in USA?

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I’d love to have those big cherries. I wonder when they can be sold in USA nursery.