Hmmmm… I thought they were ripe. They were coming right off the stems and were soft and quite juicy, and the birds were gobbling them up but maybe birds are less patient than I am.
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So far in Zone 7b Georgia Romeo has been a better cherry than Carmine Jewel. Carmine Jewel has grown more vigorously but Romeo has fruited more, though neither has fruited heavily. Romeo has slightly sweeter fruit, sweet enough to eat some without processing, and has fruited more, though neither has fruited much. The birds are an issue as @ClothAnnie stated, and they will eat them a few days before they are ripe enough for me. Immunox also did a good job on the Cherry leaf spot disease for me.
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Birds will certainly eat them before they are ready, you have to net the tree and wait weeks. The do get sweet if allowed to completely ripen.
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Ok- it’s hard to imagine them being sweeter! I will have to be way more protective next year.
Here’s my cherry tree this year- lots of dead wood! Not sure what happened! Also, maybe a little baby tree is coming off of the roots??
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That looks like carmine jewell. Make sure you are treating the bush with a fungicide like immunox or captan. CJ will send out suckers like that. Everything i’m seeing there is normal. Remove the dead wood and spray with fungicides as needed based on leaf symptoms. The first year will take more sprays. Captan and immunox can be used alternatively. I use both as needed. Have not needed them 99.99% of the time on most things. Cherries need some sprays which is why i limit how many i grow. Ayers pear needs no spray. I like sour cherries but can have a larger orchard if many things are grown spray free.
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They do that, my Romeo pulled that stunt on me, and gave me a ton of saplings in the process. They started sprouting all over the place.
On talking to another grower he told me that this is not uncommon with these. Either stomp the root saplings or transplant them. If you want to transplant them give them a year of growth before you pull them.
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reminds me i have 4 14-16’’ romeo suckers i need to dig. love free trees.
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Those four easily turn into twelve if you cut extra root to the left and right of those and sprout them. Getting the roots to push green is super easy
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Why do you stomp the root saplings? I’m new to these bush cherries, but I thought the whole idea was to make a hedge of bush cherries?
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I don’t think your’s are CJ or Romeo. I have both and the fruit is darker but I’m in MT.
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Some people actually complaint that their bushes sprout from the roots. I never understood what the problem was, either transplant it (free bush!) or stump it. Problem solved.
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This page from the University of Saskatchewan is a very useful resource for anyone interested in sour cherries. There are even ripeness cards for each variety to help you out this year. Well worth a look for anyone growing these cherries.
BTW, I love them. They make amazing pies.
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i agree. made my 1st pie from mine last year and it was awesome!
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I think I may have a suckers from one of my trees. Probably the Juliet. The leaves on the sucker, assuming it is one, came up larger than the new leaves the tree so far this year? Is that normal? I’ll take a picture of it tomorrow probably. I was pulling out weeds and almost yanked it. I figure if it’s not a free cherry tree I can just kill it later.
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yes they are like that. i sprayed the 1st cherry sucker thinking it was a balsam poplar sucker that grows nearby.
Yup, big leaves is a sign of baby growth. The first time I saw that was a bit of a head scratcher so I dug up and followed the root.
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I have ordered a Juliet cherry tree from HoneyberryUSA. I hope they deliver a live tree. I have had a difficult time finding anything that is not Carmine Jewel. People talk about how lucky we are to have our weather on the West coast, but we are heavily restricted when it comes to importing plants.
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I had heart CA and Hawaii had major restriction but not Washington. Here it is weird because places like Raintree, One Green World and Bay Laurel will ship stone fruit but places like Gurneys refuse to.
Even though my Carmine Jewel and Juliet have abundant blossoms,there has never been much interest from bees.It doesn’t really affect the fruiting,as that is plentiful also.
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