Sweet Cherries 2017

[mrsg47]

Mam, I sprayed Indar on all of my peaches. Since I do not bag them this will be a test. They are about the size of 50 cent pieces or a little larger now, and look quite good except for early squirrel damage and a few bird pecks. No brown rot to speak of. . . hopefully I will not have any or little.

[mamuang]

I believe it will work for you. If it does not work for me, I will spray Indar next year before I bag.

This year I mixed Triazicide and Immunox to spray for bugs and CAR. Not sure if Indar will be as effective to CAr as myclo.

[mamuang]

A dead Black Star next to Black Gold. Before we take it down, we use it as a pole to keep the net off cherries so bird can’t pick through.

We cut down several dead bamboo. Use those canes to lay on top keeping the net off the fruit, too.

[Johnnysapples]

We are eating the pie right now. It does taste good. I made the top with brown sugar, butter, and oatmeal with a little bit of flour. The cherries were not all ripe but I didn’t want to loose them. That’s one reason I made pie out of them. I could add sugar that way. It taste like rhubarb kind of with cherry flavor. The top is good with it. I can make a couple more pies.

[Johnnysapples]

What size is that net? I tried keeping my cherry trees small. I was getting three foot of growth a year on the top. I kept cutting them back to about 16". I gave up two years ago and didn’t prune. My rainier tree grew five foot that year. It looks funny now. It’s going to be a big tree. I will just net the bottom and let the birds eat the top.

[mamuang]

Bought it for a few years now. I can’t recall the size at the moment. Will look for the info for you.

[ltilton]

Trouble is, the birds don’t cooperate and stay out of your half

[ltilton]

Cherry crisp

[ltilton]

Problem with it is the weight. It’s 28x28, for one thing, and just heavy. I wanted to cover my White Gold cherry with the smaller mesh, but the tree just folded under the weight.

Cherry tree is older now, tho, and my aprium tree is more sturdy. Might try it on plums.

It’s not snaggy, which is the good thing.

[scottfsmith]

For those without much experience cutting out cankers: here is the one on Sandra Rose I took a picture of above, after I cut it out today. I cut until there is no dark/wet stuff in the wood - all the borders look good here. I should put some copper or something on this if I get around to it, they can get re-infected at open wounds like this.

[Johnnysapples]

Wow that was a big infection. The wood looks good though. Hopefully it makes a good come back. Keep us posted. It would be nice to see it make it, but sometimes they don’t.

[scottfsmith]

I have yet to lose a cherry tree, although a few times I wondered why I was even bothering cutting it out since it looked like a goner. One graft had less than 1/8" of good wood left after the surgery, but it eventually grew back.

[Johnnysapples]

Have you thought of bridge grafting it? That might help it heal up better. It might even be fun to watch how it would take effect. I cut them out of my peach and nectarine trees. I even have used the tip of the chainsaw and carved all the black wood out. I always put copper on it. I would at least put it where the infection was. I have painted it on. I haven’t had to deal with a wound that big before though.

[scottfsmith]

I’m not worried on this one, theres two full inches of bark left on the side I didn’t take a picture of. 1/2" of bark is better than a bridge graft, the sticks you graft will only have that much bark around them. I’ll try to shoot a picture of the 1/8" of bark tree, the live wood is now most of the way around the trunk. I think the canker hit two years ago. Interestingly this bad canker was also on Sandra Rose, I got an extra tree of it and decided to put another variety on top. The canker was below the graft on the Sandra Rose stock.

[kshaunfield]

Well, I got in my harvest of Blackgold cherries today. Both of them. Tested @ 22 brix. Not quite as crisp as a Bing, but still pretty firm. Sweet and delicious. I’d love to eat about 500 more. Maybe next year.

[mamuang]

Wow, 22 brix!! That’s great.

I believe my Black Gold has been around mid teen. But again, it often rains here before or during ripening time. The sweetness could be diluted.

My BG is about two weeks from ripening. Again, it rains on and off often including 6 out of the next 10 days.

[kshaunfield]

We often have heavy rains this time of year, but its been a week since big rain. I’m pretty self-disciplined and let them hang a good while. It probably helped that my 3rd leaf tree only had 2 cherries to ripen!

[mamuang]

I’ve eaten BG for 4-5 years. The past two years it produced pounds of cherries from one tree that is kept about 6 ft tall and spread out like an umbrella (for netting convenience).

They never had higher brix in the 20’s. I call the texture rather soft, not even semi-firm. I let them hung a long time and picked them over several days. It could be my climate or that my standard for cherries is hign. Bing and Ranier are my standard. If they are a 10, my BG is a 5/6. I have grafted Sweetheart, Black Pearl, White Gold to it.

My other cherry that died this spring had Bing, Stella, Black Tartarian, among other things on it. Bummer!!!

[Susu]

Why did your Black star die? I just planted a Black Star this past April. So far doing ok. Just wondering what could take it down

[mamuang]

The real answer is I don’t know. It could be verticillium wilt. @Matt_in_Maryland said someone told him not to graft many things on a Jrynsk 5 rootstock. Mine was on K5. Last year, the 2nd year in ground, I grafted two grafts on it. The grafts took so well.

This year I grafted 4-5 more on it. When the grafts started pushing, all of a sudden, leaves all wilt. It dies slow death I think.