Propagating Carmine Jewel Cherries

Not really sure what to do with them. Ill grow them up a bit and decide I guess. Was thinking about planting them down by a stream near my house for wildlife or personal use down the road. They probably arent pollinated by anything else, I have a montmorency in the area but not sure if that would pollinate CJ…

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If there’s a hundred of them it wouldn’t hurt to pot some up now and see how that goes. They definitely would be easier to pot up now while you don’t have to dig so much. I would push a troll in all the way around them and then pop them out trying to leave them undisturbed. These have been cross bread from hundreds of bushes, and sour trees, so they won’t come true. It would be interesting though to see how the fruit comes out. You might get one or two out of the hundred that are worth selling. I think they were picking one or two trees out of 250. I always have to go back and read. I can never remember the exact numbers, but it was a lot of trees or bushes. These are Hybrid cherry bushes prunus fruticosa x prunus cerasus. Fruticosa are dwarf ground cherries like the pin and Mongolian. Cerasus is the sour cherry like Montmorency. I bet the Montmorency would pollinate them. All the romance are hybrids Prunus Fruticosa x Prunus Cerasus. They just kept growing the seeds out till they found good ones then grew those and bred those then picked the good ones over like 70 years. Being pollinated by a Montmorency can’t be a bad thing can it?

You could always send me 4 or 5 of them to help you experiment :wink:

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The genetic base of
current varieties
(1990’s Breeding)
Thousands of ‘Improved Mongolian’ cherries
seedlings distributed
Only best 2 mongolians used in breeding
Pure Sour Cherry Cultivars:
North Star
Cicanski Rubin
Planteskole og Frohandel
Kelleris 14
Note: others used but progeny not selected

U of S dwarf cherries are 1/4 Mongolian. Half Mongolian were waist high. If you bred with Montmorency you would more like a tree.

Dug up some CJ seedlings and transplanted them into a pot which is currently inside under LED lights. They are in pro-mix bx with some osmocote plus and water crystals added. I covered them with a transparent plastic garbage bag until they show some growth. Hopefully roots werent damaged to badly in the move.


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your going to have to distube the roots again to transfer them to individual pots later. poor guys.

I bet they take right off , the roots look fine to me. I would be more concerned about rot. I have had trouble with it when growing stone fruit seedlings in doors

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I was picturing more of a plant when you said seedling. They look good. I hope they do well for you. Keep us posted.

Plant abuse ehh? Ive still got prolly 4x that many in the ground outside. i just wanted to bring some inside because of the weather we have been having and also Im battling a rabbit right now which could raise hell with them if he took a liking…

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You know if you added compost, you may avoid root rot. bacteria in compost have it out for the root rot fungus. Compost mixed with perlite or DE would probably work. If it is a problem. I never tried it but read a couple studies where it showed compost worked in preventing root rot. In one they use five different composts, bagged compost. I think all were manure. All worked to some degree, some much better than others, but everyone showed a statistical difference in prevention versus the control (no compost)
I myself always use sterile soil for sensitive seedlings, and seed starting. It’s working well, I hardly ever see it. I have seen it more using coir, which I like, but seeing a few rots. I may try it myself.Once you have it, everything is contaminated.

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Maybe I should uncover them so they dont have 100% humidity? Im not sure how long it takes the roots to start taking up water, after being moved like that, maybe a couple days…

When I was growing peach seedlings I found they did much better in peat pots than plastic starting trays, the peat dry out much faster. I think you are on the right track, maybe not 100 percent humidity

Stuck some cuttings from Juliet cherry I got from HBUSA on saturday. Dipped in RH and stuck in sand/promix bx mixture. Not sure if they will root at this stage of growth but figured Id give it a shot. They are on an 80deg heat mat in my cool garage in an area that gets about 4hours / day of light via west facing window. I removed all but 1 bud on most of them. At the same time I stuck about 20 root cuttings, 1/4 to 1/2 inch diameter all cut to be about 2 inches long in the same mixture, no hormone, on same heat mat.

Here’s an update on mine. It’s been about six weeks now I hope they have started to root.

You can see both pots of Juliet by the bottom red waxed log to the right. Just click on the photo to bring it up and then click one more time to zoom in. Move the up and down sides to get to where you want.

@TheDerek I hope all works out well. I would shade the sun from the buds if I were you. I would want the tops to take as long as possible to open to give more time for the roots to grow or form. Looks good!

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I probably would have put them in individual pots…

I already have all my apricot and pear seedlings in 1 gallon pots.

How important do you guys think it is to seal the tops of the cuttings? I could melt some wax and apply with a Qtip if it would help.

I think it is very important that they loose no moisture. I would take the insulated coffee cup chop up some wax pour boiling water in and wait a bit for the wax to melt. Then dip the whole top that sticks out of the medium. You can still pull them and do this should only take ten minutes. A lot faster than messing with the qtips. Fill the cup up to the top. Your going to need about one inch worth of wax shaved mixed with bees wax. Do a quick dip for a thin layer. If the wax gets cool and starts to go on thick put an ice cube in it let it harden pour of the water and add more hot boiling water. A quick dip will not hurt the cutting at all.

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I just did all my rootstock cuttings Saturday with wax and hormone. Dipped one side in wax then the other in hormone then shoved into sand. Sand is nice for drainage and getting the roots apart. I did a lot of cuttings after grafting the 21 rootstocks with the same cup of wax! It goes fast.

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@TheDerek Yours are starting to leaf out I would just dip the tops.

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