Planted 3 cherry trees but only White Gold has survived the winters / diseases after 3 years. Late frost and low pollination got all but 1 cherry this year but I was pretty excited to try my first home grown cherry
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I’m imagining the whole family set up in a formal dining setting with candlelight as you reverently and meticulously carve the cherry.
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I have been around this site from the beginning. I feel that cherries, esp. sweet cherries, are fruit trees that many people really want to grow but are often met with failure and/or great disappointment.
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I scratched out cherries from my plans after their third season in ground. As much as I alike them, they are so much work and problems (cracking, canker, cherry leaf spot and birds) with little reward, here in the east cost.
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@Ahmad don’t forget brown rot, plum curculio (and other pests), too.
To be honest, we grow our own fruit because our home grown apricots, peaches, nectarines, taste superior to store bought counterparts. That is true to almost every fruit I grow except for cherries. My Black Gold, White Gold, Utah Giant, Sweet Heart, etc. did not taste anywhere close to store-bought Bing. And store-bought Rainier tastes even better than Bing.
At least, in the east coast, buying cherries is the way to go.
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It took six years for my Juliet cherry bush to finally (this year) push a full bloom. 4 years ago I got a few, for the last two after that maybe half a cup. This season finally it got converted in blooms.
On the other hand the montmorency had been the little engine that could. On year one with 8-inch branches it pushed as many as it could, not that many. Last year on 14" branches it did another respectable push. This year it has some bulk to it, I can’t wait to see what it will do.
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Of course, but I did not mention these as they apply to other fruit types too, and are somewhat easy to manage.
Absolutely agree on this point! Nevertheless, since I moved to CT I have not found high quality Rainier cherry at a reasonable price; last year it was marked for $10/lb! Bing type from Costco was about $6-8/lb, which is still fairly expensive.
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I carved it like a turkey and served everyone on the fine china
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My lone White Gold will be my last sweet cherry I think, but I will probably try some sour cherries at some point as I read that they are more reasonable to grow. I read it on here at some point - sweet cherries look for ways to die
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Reading the troubles folks have growing cherries in places where you should have a decent shot at it makes me understand what a long shot I have at growing them in the deep south.
If I’m lucky they survive until next spring. If I’m really lucky I get a few blossoms to enjoy. I’m not thinking past that.
Zone 9a. FYI at 4 AM this morning it was 82 degrees and 99% humidity.
We (zone 7A) planted 5 sweet and 5 tart cherry trees about 8-9 years ago. Of the sweet cherries, the single White Gold produces 3-4 cherries every year, the Black Tartarian seems to be the favorite of the birds so everything disappears, the Hungarian Balaton is fighting to stay alive but still gives us about 30 cherries, and the Royal Ann and the Hudson cherries disappear over night. Only the tart cherries (2 Van, Bing, Eastern Bing and Montmorency) produce very well. So my wife ends up making cherry juice. I am now giving more attention to PEACH trees which seem to grow very well here.
You had one more cherry than me!!! North shore Coastal Massachusetts, Zone 6 had a crazy freeze and no flowers 
. I am giving it a few more years. I have a multi grafted fruit tree and these others:
When people ask me what the easiest fruit tree to grow organically is in northern Utah, I tell them plums and then sweet cherries.
I spray spinosad 2 times while ripening for western cherry fruit fly and that’s it…it just depends on your location.
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I had two cherries, one was a multi-graft from Raintree.
Both had horrible fall shothole problems, bad enough to defoliate the tree. And what few cherries did set would inevitably crack and rot. After 6 years and less than 100 cherries, I pulled them this year.
Somebody somewhat nearby grows some since I get some in my fruit ag share, but frankly they taste bad compared to store bought. Cherries are literally the only fruit that consistently tastes better from the grocery store I’ve ever eaten.
this was like my plum crop at 5 years! we got one.
we did sit down together and eat it with great formality and sips of white wine after. that first fruit is an occasion.
on a cherry related note a friend’s Rainier just finished and she gave me 10 pounds of cherries. I made jam today and packed up a few packages for my stepson’s mom, another friend nearby, and us to eat fresh.
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Hey don’t complain, my 3 lychee trees got nothing after 8 years. One I paid dearly. They are on the chopping block next year.
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I am horrified 
you made jam from Rainier!! In the east coast, it costs $5-6 a lb. I can eat 10 lbs of fresh Rainier by myself.
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one giant paper bag weighted 10 pounds, plus some. the plus some is in the fridge, I think it’s 5 or 6 pounds just for eating. we could never get through them all.
I made the same jam last year, we finished it off within six months
that’s the jam
plus these containers of “I don’t know what tree it is” cherries. lol. she has 4 trees. one is a black republican I keep meaning to go steal scions from. (the joke is that she has two rainier trees and thinks they’re two kinds because one gets more sun and has more blush)
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If it were me, I would freeze them instead. I like frozen fruit. It was like eating frozen popsicles, with no sugar added!!
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yes but there’s a jam addict in the house. so I must.
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