Sweet Cherries 2017

General Fruit Growing
#1

I’m getting a bunch of new varieties coming in this year and would like to share how they are doing and hear others experiences.

This year I sprayed Indar on the cherries and I am getting zero rot, even the cracked fruits are not rotting if picked fast enough. We had a lot of rain so the cracking is a bit higher than usual. I also used Surround to keep the curc off, they prefer other fruits but if everything else but the cherries has Surround on it they will pick on the cherries.

I remembered to put up the reflective tape before any cherries reddened and so far its working on the birds. Oddly enough we also don’t have the usual pack of catbirds we get most years. I wonder where they went.

White Gold - I haven’t pruned this tree well, its too big and too shaded so is not producing many cherries. But they are very good. This year I have maybe 1/3rd cracking which is much higher than usual. They have a red blush when ripe.

Black Gold - this tree continues to overset and produce bland cherries. I’ll put a picture below so you can see what I mean by oversetting. I’m getting a little tired of it and may topwork with something else. No cracking though.

Sandra Rose - a great-tasting modern cherry variety. It sets the right amount for me and produces a great fruit. One of my favorites. The downside is its more prone to canker, I have a few to cut out once its done fruiting. Some cracking, maybe 20%.

Reverchon - This is an older variety but is also good-tasting. Very sweet but a bit less flavor. Little cracking.

Waterloo - an old variety with excellent flavor, better than Sandra Rose. But the tree sets very few fruits. I will keep it around to see if it picks up the set rate. Average cracking.

Black Eagle - another very old variety, this one is a black variety, pick when dark purple. This is the top for taste in my orchard now but the fruits are small and on the soft side and the tree is not very productive. Average cracking.

Regina - this is the latest to ripen. The early ripening ones are good. This tree way oversets like BG, but then most of them eventually abort so it ends up with a balanced load. Good on cracking so far.

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Reviving the Eastern Sweet Cherry Thread
#2

It’s a shame black gold is so disappointing. The picture makes the cherries look excellent! White gold is similar to Rainer? Great information Scott. I have one sweet cherry tree at this time and would like to have more long term. The trees seem difficult to grow well.

#3

My Black Tartarian on Colt has grown into a beautiful tree, but still NO blooms.

Same for Craig’s Crimson Z-Dwarf and Royal Rainier Colt.

Nothing from Sam Gi.6 either. That tree is small.

This year, I got a small amount of bloom, but no mature fruits, from Blackgold Gi.12 and Blackpearl Gi.6. Those trees still young.

Whitegold K.5 is still holding several sizeable cherries which I hope to eat soon…

#4

My White Gold, only remaining cherry, is just coloring up. I’ll need to net it soon.

After the very wet spring, weather is drying off and heating up rapidly - looks promising for cherries.

While I like WG, I wish I still had the Stella, with richer flavor - not that I ever got any fruit from it.

#5

I had a super heavy fruit set on my Lapins and i bet i’ve lost half the crop to rot and just fruit turning dull and dropping//not sizing up. Too much rain… Mine are not yet coloring.

#6

I looked at my cherries this morning and I have a single black gold and a single montmorency cherry remaining. The birds must have had their way with them. I wasn’t going to habe a large crop but probably enough for a nice bowl of fresh eaters. Growing fruit has become pretty frustrating for me

#7

Interesting you’ve had some success with Waterloo tempered with low productivity.

Arboreum says it is naturally low on production because of a queer habit of frequently setting only one cherry per potential cluster. Nonetheless, the purple-black fruits look amazing. I suppose if you want more from this guy… you’ll have to grow a bigger and bigger tree.

What rootstock are you using?

http://www.arboreumco.com/store/products/waterloo

#8

I agree cherries have been very frustrating for me too. I have a good set on my Rainier cherry but half of them are turning light brown and quit growing. I’m still yet to have a successful crop for me to eat. Usually the raccoons and birds get them first. I got about 1/4 set on my Bing, and Stella. I had frost kill the buds on my Black Tartarian. Craig’s Crimson is to small yet.

#9

In my greenhouse cherries are the most difficult fruit I grow. I’m keeping one tree of Bing/Selah/Royal Rainier. I don’t get much fruit although a decent crop on RR. It’s not much of a cherry compared to Bing. The last two yrs Bing has been 30+ brix and sensational sweet/acid flavor. There may not be a better tasting fruit.

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#10

I just posted an entry about my Lapins under another topic, then I saw this topic. Here it is:

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#11

Yes they look great but thats about it unfortunately. I am going to let them hang to see if they improve any.

Yes, White Gold is something like Ranier I think.

Cherries are definitely hard to grow, they have their own special array of problems including major bird etc predation and serious canker issues plus rot and cracking. At one point I had taken out all but one sweet cherry, White Gold, but I decided to give it one more try and I think I may finally have it now. I started cherries in 2002 so thats 15 years to figure it out :grinning:

The one thing left for me is to find the right variety combination, I really like the very dark cherries but have not had much luck getting them to fruit. I have a Black Tartarian and an Early Purple Guigne which yet again did not fruit (I got one EPG but it was under-ripe when I picked it). White Gold is a great Ranier-type, and if Sandra Rose keeps the canker away I think I have a good solid red cherry as well. Regina should also be decent at least and since its later that will be nice – too many of my cherries are ripening right now.

@Matt_in_Maryland, Waterloo is doing that, plus it is not setting many clusters. If it gets more flowers to take it should be a worthwhile cherry to grow.

Note there is some chance my Black Gold is some other variety, I grew it before and it didn’t do this bad oversetting thing. The tree came labeled Black Gold from the nursery but I am wondering if it is not a mistaken ID.

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#12

My Black Gold overset every year. It is from Raintree 5 6 years ago. It is self fertile but It had Vandalay to cross pollinate until last year when I removed Vandalay.

This year it bloomed like crazy again but has nothing to enhance fruit set. It overset again but there is no ther cherry to cross pollinate. Ton of them turned yellow and fell off. No Thinning required.

Scott, my black Gold looked darker than the ones in your pic.

@Matt_in_Maryland, my neighbor’s Black Tartarian ( she has two) finally flowered and set a few cherries. this year. I meant to say that those tree took 7 years to fruit (only a few this first time)

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#13

What rootstocks are your cherries on?

#14

Scott, are your White Gold ripe now? I left two on my first year tree from Raintree. It flowered a ton and I picked a bunch off, but was naughty and left two. Mine are starting to put on a blush. With two I guess it is a crap shoot as to when I pick them.

It would be a perfect year for cherries here, if they were ripening now. (It seems a bit early.) We haven’t had more than a drop of rain in a week and the forecast is looking dry for the 10 day.

#15

I’m growing 3 of the Pearl Series here on Gi6, hopefully next season I’ll try and get some cherries (3rd leaf)

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#16

Last year I picked mine on June 11 and June 15.

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#17

I have various random rootstocks. The Black Gold is on Gisela 12, White Gold is Gisela 5, Sandra Rose and Regina are on Gisela 6. I think Waterloo and Black Eagle are Mahaleb and my Monty sour is on Mazzard. I don’t know much about Gisela 12, maybe its part of my Black Gold problem…

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#18

Usually when they are starting to blush they are close or at picking time. I look at the tops, look for a nice light yellow not a light whitish yellow. It takes practice to distinguish the shades of yellow.

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#19

ACN says Gi.12 should work well for our area.

I have self-guided toured Boyer’s Nursery and Orchards several times, with their permission, on foot. Their trees on Gi.6 look fantastic.

#20

Mahaleb is a good rootstock here in Kansas. They seem easy to grow and I have a bunch of them. They don’t get cherries fruiting overly fast but they do stay alive in this area where canker abounds! They seem to be easier to graft sour cherries to than sweet cherries.