I’ve seen articles here and there about sweet cherry varieties that do well enough in mid-Atlantic conditions.
I believe both Gold varieties (Whitegold and Blackgold) are said to be decent, as well as Lapins. Any feedback?
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I got a crop of White Gold for the first time this year. We’ve had TONS of rain here and were expecting more so I picked them a little early. Brix was 17-20. The ones that hit 20 were good. Under better conditions, I’m sure they would have got higher if allowed to fully ripen. Some were cracked but not too bad, and none really rotted. (They were sprayed with Immunox a few times). I was impressed with their performance given the extremely damp cool conditions, but your conditions will probably be hotter which can be good or bad. Lapins has a better flavor and so far has held up with very little cracking. but they aren’t quite ripe yet this year. Black Gold set like crazy and are still fire engine red so they still have probably a few weeks to go. Last year the flavor of Black Gold was good but not great.
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Update–> Lapins have started to crack so I picked them today. Got about a gallon and all the ripe ones were cracked. bummer. We’ve had about 7" of rain so far this month, they didn’t stand a chance. I had to pick almost 2 gallons of Carmine Jewels today. Some were cracked and I started to see a dozen or so with brown rot.
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I am a big fan of White Gold. They need to hang a long time, the color should be a real yellow and not a light yellow. I didn’t measure brix but they were over 20 for sure. I had some splits but no rot on them thanks to Indar.
I had a very good Black Gold years ago, recently I re-added it but the new one seemed to be the wrong variety as it didn’t ripen well. It got removed (again).
Regina has been a solid cherry for me, it took a few years before it made quality fruit but its doing well now. It’s not outstanding on flavor but is as good as a good grocery cherry and doesn’t crack much at all. This is also similar to my memory of my good Black Gold tree, good but not outstanding taste and not too much cracking. White Gold is relatively better on the taste front, its a top-quality Napoleon (yellow) type.
I tried many heirloom varieties such as Waterloo, Purple Guigne, etc and they are very tasty but are not productive. I should topwork them with something better, the trunks are 4" across and I could get a lot of nice cherries on them.
Sandra Rose tastes truly excellent but my two trees have been ridiculously prone to canker. I think one is going to go soon, there is a big canker at the base and I already cut out many cankers. Pass on that one for sure!
Attika is one I really wanted to grow, I bought it once upon a time but the deer munched it and it didn’t make it. It should taste better than Regina and it will be the next one I add if I can find it. I am now caging all new trees so the deer can’t munch them any more.
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I have had a horrible time growing cherries. My challenge is getting the trees to grow. I had 4 trees die years ago on on mahleb rooststock, had a beautiful White Gold Cherry tree die second year in the ground on mazzard rootstock and had 1 sweet cherry second year in the ground die on Maxma 14 rootstock this year (in a raised container). I have a Stella cherry tree on colt rootstock that has grown well but not produced, a black heart cherry that has thrived on what i believe is wild cherry root stock, and 3 more on Maxma 14 rootstock that are too early to tell if they will thrive. I wish I could figure out the right combination to get cherry trees to grow - maybe Colt rootstock is the key.
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What rootstocks are you using? Gisela 5?
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I haven’t noticed much difference other than a bit on vigor. I currently have Mahaleb, Mazzard, Gisela 5 6 and 12, and GM 61/1. All good.
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I worked for a small sweet cherry operation that did well with Royalton. They were fairly large, took awhile before they started cracking, and were delicious. The Somersets were worthless a d the Queen/Royal Annes were tasty but cracked way too quickly.
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