I posted this earlier.Does the damage look similar? Brady
Grasshoppers girdled the tips of mine last year. Birds need a water supply available but they eat a lot of grasshoppers so encourage them to hang around. Plant mulberries and they wonāt eat cherries
Iāve tried some bush cherries but here in our wet Spring climate, none have produced well yet. Montmorency outproduces everything Iāve seen by a large margin so far.
John S
PDX OR
Thatās good because we have wet humid weather here too and I only have the Montmorency. I wanted to get some bush cherries but maybe Iāll just hold off.
My Korean bush cherry Prunus japonica also gets lots of diseases, most of which look fungal, and has basically ceased to fruit. Brady that effect on your leaves looks like a lot of what I get. Northstar gets it bad. I would guess it is bacteriological, but I donāt know for sure. Montmorency gets some but still fruits and is productive.
John S
PDX OR
@BobVance You probably posted this somewhere else, but after reading this thread and seeing your photos from this past spring, Iām very curious how your Crimson Passion bush cherries turned out/tasted, etc.
Based on this thread and others, Iām thinking Crimson Passion and Juliet may be the best choices (which for me means the sweetest). So Iād enjoy hearing your results or anyone elseās thoughts. Thanks
Bob,
Iāve had good luck with North star. Iāve had it about 12 years and no signs of disease. Itās a lighter cropper than what Iād like it to be. Its about 12-14ā tall. Iām growing montmorency I grafted a year ago off my girlfriends tree and I had to pluck cherries off already where it produced. Iāve got a bunch of rootstocks Iām thinking of grafting to romance series cherries. Is there a patent on them?
I wasnāt impressed with any of my sour cherries for fresh eating. The most promising was a Korean bush cherry (from Rolling River), which tasted pretty good, but were small. Maybe I picked some of the others too early (birds go after them). Danube wasnāt bad either, but there were only 4 cherries on a good sized tree-almost as big as the Northstar, which gave 3.5+ quarts.
From my notes:
6/20/2015- Just under a quart of Crimson Passion (10.5 brix), just over a pint of NorthStar (9 brix), 4 Danube (12.5 brix) and 3 Korean Bush cherries (12.5 brix).
6/27/2015- Picked 3 quarts of Northstar cherries with my older daughter. Tree is just about finished. I also removed the damaged ones.
That night I pitted 5 quarts of cherries with my daughter (so much red everywhereā¦) and made 11 jars of jam.
Lutowka cherry, Balaton, and Montmorency all produced 1-4 cherries for me. The Lutowka was the sweetest, at 14 brix, but it was growing in a tiny pot (since sent to my brother to find an in-ground home). Neither of the Balaton or Montmorency stood out.
1 Like
I had a lot of blossom blight 2 years ago. At least I think that is what it was (Scott helped with the ID, back when were were all on GW). This year they werenāt bad for disease (some rot), though I did get a few worms, which I found while pitting them (hopefully I got em all, as they were good sized white ones).
I think mine is really slowing down around the 8-9ā mark, which is fine for me. Iām actually planning to put some of the sour cherry grafts onto Northstar and some onto Danube. Though I donāt want to take up too much of the Danube, as I think they are the more promising for fresh eating (just low quantity so far).
I thought that they were under patent, but when I searched, I didnāt find them. Maybe someone knows more on international patents?
2 Likes
Thanks very much for the update, Bob, even though it wasnāt what I was hoping to hear. 10.5 brix is a long way from the 22 brix purported by the honeyberryusa site. While not surprising, it seems like vendor sites often tout results that may be possible but certainly not average. Kind of reminds me of the MPG ratings that automakers put on the sales sheets for new cars!
I had those white worms this year on my Northstar for the first time and wondered what they were.
I donāt blame the site for this- I think the brix comes directly from the university which released the series. It may be perfectly normal results in the northern prairie (cold winters, then lots of sun and not much water). So far, I would view them as similar to any other sour cherry, but with the additional bonus of staying bush sized.
As you can see from this pic, it definitely wasnāt dry last spring when they were ripening.
Iām not sure, but here is a pic of one.
2 Likes
Yes thatās them Bob. My North star is a good 1/8 mile from my other cherries so they wonāt find their way to my other cherries for awhile yet I hope.
It could be a Cherry Fruit fly, but the larvae pictured in this link look a bit smoother than the ones I found.
Maybe we should put up some yellow stickies, like they have pictured at the bottom of the link?
1 Like
Bob,
Those sticky traps shown in the wsu link are definitely covered. They must be a lure as well. I read this article as well http://extension.usu.edu/boxelder/files/uploads/Fruit%20Production/Western%20Cherry%20Fruit%20Fly.pdf to get some control method ideas.
Bob, your link is to the western cherry fruit fly, but in your location, itās more likely to be the eastern cherry fruit fly or the black cherry fruit fly. This may explain the small difference in the wormsā appearances.
1 Like
Not sure if this is relevant to the brix topic going on here, but I find that the U of Sask bush cherries sweeten up over time. I am growing 4 of the dark-colored varieties, and it seems many people pick them as soon as they turn ācherry redā, which is too soon for the dark-colored varieties. They turn cherry red for me around late July in my central Alberta location. Leave them another 10 days or two weeks and they turn purple/black, and are much tastier and sweeter when purple than at the cherry red stage. I usually pick them at this point, roughly August 7 here. But I have left some cherries on the bush, sampling them periodically to see if the taste improves. I donāt really notice any taste change until early September, when there seems to be a considerable softening of the acidity. I donāt know how to measure Brix, so maybe this is an increase in Brix, or maybe it just means some of the acidity breaks down?
4 Likes
This is a great topic.
This week I stopped at a nursery on my way to Longview, and they had a sign up stating their fruit trees are here. I was going through orchard care withdrawal and bought a Juliet bush cherry to get my fix. Also Empress peach, but this topic is cherries.
Given the posts here, I dont know how it will do in my area. I should not buy another variety until I test this one.
My North Star died - voles I think. Montmorency survived the drought last year with minimal watering. Surefire does well but grows too big to put up bird nets. Deer eat cherry trees, so it will need a cage. The bush size seems very workable, no ladders.
1 Like
I just ordered one each of Carmine jewel, Crimson Passion, Juliet, and Romeo. I am wondering if they are on rootstocks? They say some sucker more than others but will the suckers grow true to the bush? I purchased mine at Honeyberry USA. It would be an easy way to propagate these bushes.
1 Like
I just found a good read on these. They grow on their own roots.
http://cherries.msu.edu/uploads/files/2010_NW_orchard_show/Bors_BreedTrainDwarfTarts.pdf
5 Likes