Since our own sweet cherry trees are not yet productive, as we have most years for a decade, we went to a local long-established you-pick cherry place. There are a lot fewer trees than there were just ten years ago. The dead and dying trees haven’t been replaced, since the owner is not expecting any of his kids to take over, and the land could make much more money if it were to be converted to grapes (the orchard has a great view of one of the finger lakes). As a result, there are no new varieties. They are mostly Schmidt, with some Hedelfingen, and a few Royal Ann and Emperor Francis.
Searching this forum for Schmidt cherry, I find almost nothing, but it is a great tasting sweet cherry. The trees have always seemed to be quite productive, and the cherries have great crack resistance. I read somewhere that “tree decline is a problem” with the variety, but some of these Schmidts were planted in the 1980s. In its day, Schmidt seemed to be one of the leading alternatives to Bing in the northeast, but is hard to find any more.
I now have some scionwood courtesy of the owner and will try bud grafting once we get a break in the heat spell. If any of you have experience growing Schmidt cherry trees, I’d appreciate your opinions about the variety.