Wow! The clusters on the last two varieties are impressive, almost like grapes.
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ztom , the cherry fruit overload , is visually appealing , but not at all interesting from various aspects .
In the first place , when there is an overload , the cherries lose a lot of size , and secondly , when the tree is overloaded , it is very dificultd to harvest .
The varieties that have a proportional load with high quality and large caliber are much more interesting.
Look at a very interesting example.
This photo belongs to the PA7UNIBO-Sweet Stephany variety (belongs to the Sweet series of Alma Mater, obtained from the University of Bologna-Italy).
As you can see, it has an adequate fruit load, but it is not overloaded, so the quality of the fruits is exceptional.
I never recommend hyper-productive cherry varieties, as they are not interesting.
Best regards
Jose
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Wow, I wish my cherries will grow into those hyper-productive “uninteresting” cherries in your pictures…lol.
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Don’t get too excited. Jose grows his cherries in Spain. His climate is vastly different from our US east coast.
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mamuang, both in Virginia and in New England, you have an adequate climate for the cultivation of cherry trees without problems.
You have good amounts of cold winter hours and spring and summer seasons with warm temperatures for its perfect maturation.
What you do have against you is that I see a lot of rainfall, so you are in areas with a humid climate and you need to take certain precautions.
-
Choice of the appropriate rootstock, which does not have problems with root asphyxia (Krimsk-86 with intermediate Adara plum graft)
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Varietal choice, since you must choose the varieties of cherries resistant to cracking and fungal diseases such as monilia.
With these two precautions, you will grow cherries without problems.
If you are unaware of the varieties of cherries resistant to cracking and fungal diseases, I can recommend some interesting varieties.
Best regards
Jose
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Jose, all due respect, up and down along US east coast, it is a lot tougher to grow sweet cherries here. If it is not that challenging, we would have commercial production of sweet cherries here by now.
I am hapoy for those growing cherries in cherry-friendly climates.
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Mamuang, I send you some photos and then I tell you very important things.
In the photograph you will see how I do it so as not to have problems with the cherry trees, since my soil is very calcareous with a high Ph, and the standard cherry tree rootstocks from nurseries do not adapt to my land.
In the photos you will see the rootstock that I make for my soil conditions.
In the lower part (root system) I use a hybrid almond x peach rootstock, which adapts very well to my land, it is the GxN 15 Garnem rootstock.
As an intermediate graft to make it compatible with the cherry tree (upper part of the white ribbon), you can use two varieties of plum, Adara and Monrepos. I use Monrepos, because it is more resistant to high Ph.
And finally, you will see a graft made with the Chip Budding technique, of the Royal Lafayette cherry variety.
This variety
In a moment I will explain how you should proceed to have guaranteed success with cherry trees.
Best regards
Jose
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Hello again guys.
You will see that I am going to make a lot of emphasis on the rootstock, since it is the most important thing in a cherry plantation (amateur or commercial).
Several cases can arise, for example mine is calcareous soil with high Ph, so I need a rootstock that tolerates high Ph well.
As for the pure stone fruit tree ( peach , nectarine , or flat peach ) , the GxN 15 Garnem rootstock does very well in my field , and the peach trees do not show chlorosis or any other deficiency symptoms , it is the one I use as a rootstock for cherry tree , making it compatible with a bridge graft , Adara plum or Monrepos plum ( I like Monrepos better ) , this way my cherry trees grow absolutely healthy .
But this knowledge has been given to me by experience, and I will show you that I also have problems if I don’t do things well.
When I buy cherry trees from fruit nurseries ( mainly Italian nurseries ) , these cherry trees are grafted on Santa Lucia rootstock ( Prunus Mahaleb ) , or other rootstocks that are not suitable for my land .
What I do is plant them in my orchard to obtain grafting material, and graft it onto the appropriate rootstock.
You are going to see the same variety in three different states.
The variety of cherry that you are going to see is Royal Helen
- Royal Helen cherry bought in a nursery with Prunus Mahaleb rootstock, with clear symptoms of nutritional deficiencies, since it cannot absorb nutrients with this rootstock
- Dead Royal Helen cherry tree, because the rootstock prunus Mahaleb does not suit my land
- Royal Helen cherry tree grafted on the appropriate rootstock (GxN 15 Garnem with Monrepos plum bridge graft), and enjoying excellent health
So the choice of rootstock, and its preparation is absolutely essential to be successful.
For your humid soils, you should choose rootstocks that are very resistant to root asphyxia (Krymsk-86 is very good), but the rootstock that works well on your pure stone fruit trees, such as peach trees, which do not present iron chlorosis and they develop well in your field without problems. It will be a valid rootstock for cherry trees, making it compatible with an intermediate graft of Adara plum or Monrepos plum.
The cherry varieties to be grafted worry me much less, since there are quite a few varieties that are totally resistant to cracking and fungal diseases, such as Monilia.
We will talk later about varieties suitable for very humid climates.
Best regards
Jose
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Jose, your cherries are beautiful, but your climate is not humid and I believe you do not get a lot of fog. Fog and humidity and mildew and rot and too much dampness ruins a lot of our stonefruilt not just cherries. There are so many more insects and molds that grow in New England. Having left my orchard in Rhode Island and now living in the South of France the difference is staggering. Can’t compare the two.
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Galicia is the most humid region in Spain and has an average annual rainfall of 1180 mm.
The annual amount of precipitation in New England is 1169 mm
In Galicia there is terrible humidity and strong fog.
Excellent cherries are grown in Galicia, if the rootstocks and varieties are chosen well
Best regards
Jose
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@Jose-Albacete do you know how the cracking resistance is rated? I’m wondering how controlled the environment is when testing.
Galicia, Poland?
Spain. The climate is similar to areas of the PNW but with a bit more summer rain. It’s a lot drier in spring and summer than in winter. Sort of a cross of the best sweet cherry areas and New England. The best areas have nearly no spring and summer rain.
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@Jose-Albacete do you know if “burlat” and “early burlat” are the same or different varieties? I’ve seen early burlat used as a harvest time reference in a few places instead of bing, for early stuff
of your list I’m growing utah giant and early star/panaro 2. I think panaro 2 is ripe in a few days so I’m about a month behind you (in the pnw)
Guys, please give me a while, I’m finishing work and now I solve your questions.
Best regards
Jose
Hello again friends, I am at home and I will try to answer your questions (from my humble ignorance)
Hi tubig , this is a tremendously interesting question, and I do know how crack resistance is tested.
Obviously, some standards were necessary to evaluate the calculation of resistance to cracking of the different varieties of cherry trees.
Until the decade of the 70s, a standardized method (Christensen method) was used, which consists of immersing the cherries in distilled water for a certain period of time, but later (decade of the 80s) Michail Michaidilis postulated that by immersion in water , the fruits not receive the same osmotic pressure that rainwater does , so another method was standardized using a cascade of distilled water , to more closely resemble the natural process of rain .
Today both tests are carried out together, to obtain results as reliable as possible.
I leave you a pdf for you to read
s13007-020-00593-6.pdf (1.2 MB)
Hi mrsg47 , I don’t quite understand the question, but if you mean that Galicia is not the same as Poland, I will tell you that Poland is a country where the cherry tree is cultivated and studied a lot.
I buy quite a lot of cherry trees in this Polish nursery
Hi Steven, Yes, there are regions more suitable than others in the Spanish territory for cherry cultivation, but in general terms, the lack of cold hours in certain regions is more limiting for cherry cultivation in Spain, especially the Mediterranean basin and Andalusia.
To give you a practical example , it is more problematic to grow cherry trees in San Diego ( California ) , than in states further north , simply due to the requirement of cold hours , since the low Chill varieties are very limited and are not great either ( Currently the IFG’s Cheery series is aimed at getting high quality cherries with a very low requirement of cold hours).
If you don’t know them, it’s this series of cherry trees
From this series, I have two very good varieties, Cheery Grand and Cheery Treat.
Hi z0r , the Burlat cherry variety, also called Early Burlat, comes from France, but its breeder is unknown.
If indeed in Europe the Burlat variety is taken as the reference variety for calculating ripening dates ( more or less days with respect to Burlat ) , you in the United States take the Bing variety as the reference standard for cherry tree ripening ( more or less days in relation to Bing ) .
I have the two varieties “Panaro” .
Sweet Early Panaro-1 (Burlat -2 days) and Early Star Panaro-2 (Burlat + 4 days), as I don’t like to lie, I will tell you that both are very, very mediocre, good varieties for those ripening dates , would be these to name a few:
- Frisco
- Rocket
- Early Red Maraly
- Giant Red Mariant
- Nimba
- Pacific Red
I have all these varieties and they are all wonderful (in my climatic conditions)
Here you can see its characteristics (they are in the Cot International catalog, after apricots)
cot-catalogue-fruitier-gb-2020-bd.pdf (2.2 MB)
Best regards
Jose
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thank you! I will write down your suggestions but I don’t think we can get them here at retail
good to know burlat = early burlat. I couldn’t get a clear answer anywhere
in my area we have nearly ideal cherry conditions with one exception, our weather during bloom can be bad. the self-fertile varieties seem to set more consistently in marginal years so I’m trying to stick with those, that’s an advantage of early star. the other self fertile one in this window I’m trying is santina but it hasn’t flowered yet
Hi again z0r.
I forgot to tell you that Utah Giant is a magnificent, but magnificent, magnificent cherry variety. It only has one problem and that is that it is very sensitive to cracking.
If you do not have rain during the final ripening phase, Utah Giant will be one of your favorite varieties.
Now let’s focus on the pollination of the cherries.
If the weather during the flowering period is bad (rain or spring frosts), the harvest is lost to a greater or lesser extent, but it does not discriminate between self-fertile or self-incompatible varieties, the harvest is reduced equally.
Most likely you have pollination problems, for this reason I am going to ask you if you know how pollination of the cherry tree works, since this is an essential issue.
I think that it is a subject that I must explain, for the guys in the forum who are not very clear about how the pollination of the cherry tree works, to find out the most appropriate pollinators.
Tomorrow if I have some time, I’ll post my favorite pollination table and I’ll explain how it works.
Best regards
Jose
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Hello again z0r and other colleagues.
Today I am going to explain how pollination of the cherry tree works, since in addition to being a very interesting topic, it is very useful for the best choice of pollinating varieties for our cherry trees, since each variety has many potential pollinators, and for us , is very interesant to choose the variety with the best characteristics, on the maturation date that interests us.
we start.
Let’s think that we have a cherry tree of the Brooks variety (a variety that I highly recommend), you have it available in the United States, and it is not as sensitive to cracking as many sources indicate, and we need a good pollinator for this variety.
first we will locate it in the pollination chart (this pollination chart is magnificent)
Once the Brooks variety is located in the pollination chart (marked with a red arrow), we have to see two important things.
- Flowering time
- Compatibility group, genotype
At the top of the pollination chart and marked in green, we have 5 columns.
- The first column indicates the compatibility group
- The second column the genotype (group of alleles)
- The third column, the early flowering cherry varieties
- The fourth column the cherry varieties of medium flowering period
- The fifth column, the late flowering cherry varieties
As you will see , the Brooks variety ( marked with a red arrow ) , belongs to the mid - flowering season varieties , it belongs to the compatibility group XVIII , and its genotype ( alleles ) are S1S9
Well, now comes the really important thing.
Brooks will pollinate perfectly well with all mid-blooming season varieties “EXCEPT” the varieties of its own genotype and compatibility group.
Explained like this it may seem complicated, but a picture is worth a thousand words
Now it is enough to choose the variety that we like the most for its characteristics, among all the varieties that are not crossed out in the pollination chart.
If there are interesting varieties for you , that are not in this pollination chart, and you want to know their flowering time, compatibility group and genotype, you just have to ask me.
I hope that now you have more clear how the pollination of the cherry tree works.
Best regards
Jose
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What is tremendously annoying is that the United States is the country with the largest number of breeders of high quality cherries:
- SMS Unlimited
-Marvin Niess
-Bradford Genetics
-zaiger
-IFG
(I’m sure I forgot some more)
Plus the good varieties obtained by universities and other official centers
And you , the fans have tremendously limited access to buy good varieties of cherry trees in fruit nurseries.
When here in Europe, it is tremendously easy for a hobbyist to get the best and newest varieties of American cherries.
That for the American fans is a real shame.
I perfectly understand that the Royaltys are there so that the breeders can earn money and can continue studying and developing new varieties, but for God’s sake, a little margin so that the fans can enjoy the good varieties (paying the corresponding royalty for each tree to buy) that would be logical.
Best regards
Jose
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