Royal Crimson, a.k.a. 6GM25 Low Chill Cherry

brownmola · 2017-05-18T05:32:42.952Z

Anyone got photo updates? Mine is growing very slowly. Has put on only about 7 inches. My friend’s has done slightly better, maybe 12 inches of growth so far.

gsims1997 · 2017-05-18T16:41:18.847Z

Donny, I’m about where you are. I headed my whip at about 3 feet. So far no feathering has been induced. The topmost bud grew out about a foot or so. I cut it back, in an effort to induce some future scaffolds. I guess I’ll have to wait for next year to start some framework. On the other hand, the cheap bare-root stella and self-fertile bing I picked up from home depot ( grown out by Pacific Groves) which I grafted over to other low-chill cultivars are going like gangbusters – 3 feet of growth on the grafts!

Richard · 2017-05-18T23:10:08.910Z

Mine’s still in a 15 gallon pot. I intend to plant it in the next two days. I probably won’t prune it until January.

markkeefe · 2018-05-04T15:02:31.386Z

Hi everyone,

I bought one of these trees about the same time as some of you, it sounds like. Mine has grown even slower… but leafed our really nicely this spring. I haven’t cut the leading stem yet because of the slow growth. I put this tree in kind of a prominent spot in my yard away from my other fruit trees in hope of it being a nice feature.

I just wanted to see how your experiences are with this tree as it looks like about a year since the last posts on this thread.

Thanks!

gsims1997 · 2018-05-04T16:55:57.016Z

No blooms on mine this year. Another year of growing. Doesn’t seem as vigorous as MR and RL.

fruitgrower · 2018-05-04T18:13:09.172Z

This variety is only offered on mazzard root, which means you may have to wait quite a while to fruit. My Bing cherry on mazzard took 6 years to fruit. On the seventh season it set a banner crop and died before ripening the fruits. I prefer the Newroot 1 dwarfing root from DWN or Colt. You probably won’t have to wait 6 years but i would guess probably 3 though. DWN will eventually offer it on the Newroot1, which usually fruits the season after planting. Mazzard will make a huge tree too, as kids we had a multi grafted cherry tree that was probably 30 feet tall!

Richard · 2018-05-04T18:52:13.765Z

Mine is developing healthy and also slowly. If someone offers it on Colt I’ll probably replace it.

RichSV · 2018-05-04T21:51:10.188Z

One could graft a small scion of this to an established tree to speed up cherry production. I grafted a scion of Brooks on my Bing and Stella tree last season, several cherries on each are developing already.

fruitgrower · 2018-05-04T22:17:16.463Z

This is a new variety thats on patent.

spurious · 2018-11-26T19:37:35.075Z

Has anyone tasted this? Is it a good fruit? I believe I get ~600 chill hours in my area. So I could plant other cherries, was thinking 2 in 1 hole planting of Lapins & Royal Rainier and want to place the order now, but curious about if this tree is worth trying (these would be my only cherries so have to make good choice!! )

Richard · 2018-11-26T19:56:01.725Z

@spurious
It’s a rainier type hybrid with low chill species. It might have funky performance in your higher chill locale. Instead, I believe you can grow Rainier directly?

spurious · 2018-11-27T02:18:53.613Z

@Richard Thanks, saw that Rainier was 700 hrs so figured It’d be pushing it, the UC calculator showed 650 last season which is where I got the 600 but it was a cooler winter than normal I think, so don’t want to get too confident in the higher chill varieties.

I think you were also talking about the Royal Rainier, correct?

What about Royal Crimson? Anyone have crops yet to comment on quality vs standards like Bing?

Vohd · 2018-11-27T06:08:11.131Z

spurious:

Thanks, saw that Rainier was 700 hrs so figured It’d be pushing it, the UC calculator showed 650 last season which is where I got the 600 but it was a cooler winter than normal I think, so don’t want to get too confident in the higher chill varieties.

If you have not already run across it, this UC Publication has some guidance for your locale, at least for older varieties. Unfortunately, it’s consistent with your assessment. I think one of the local CRFG chapters (maybe Golden Gate) has a similar list for the Peninsula and members there likely have experience with Royal Rainier. You might also consider Cristobalina.

spurious · 2018-11-27T18:00:59.504Z

Thanks @Vohd

I’ve definitely read through that brief. I feel, though am not certain, that they took a narrow view of available cultivars and created the table, so unfortunately it doesn’t have lots of cultivars but gives one a sense of the major boundaries (chill hours a major one obviously). And of course with these newer cultivars, it doesn’t stay up-to-date.

This might be the other table you were thinking about, but it’s not super helpful on cherries, I’ll see if I can talk to someone there: http://www.crfg.org/chapters/golden_gate/images/Bay_Area.pdf

spurious · 2018-11-30T17:14:55.076Z

So seems like jury is still out on Royal Crimson? Haven’t read much on the actual fruit except DWN/Zaiger blurb which is hard to trust.

Richard · 2018-11-30T19:29:23.832Z

Since you are relatively close to the Zaiger farm, you could go there and taste some this coming spring.

Stan · 2018-12-23T10:03:00.540Z

spurious:

saw that Rainier was 700 hrs so figured It’d be pushing it

True, but there are some other possibilities for you: Craig’s Crimson (600 h), Royal Rainier (500 h), Lapins (400 h), Stella (400 h). Coral Champagne and Brooks are also supposed to be reasonably low chill.