I have been to more than 40 countries. As far as peaches are concerned, the quality of peaches in China is indeed the highest. The variety series is ‘Zhongyou 1-30’. Pure sweet, acid-free and fragrant. Yellow nectarines has a large planting area in Shandong Province.
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That is quite right. I would put him at about 50 years old. You are also correct on his location. He said he was from the northern part of China. He is some kind of importer from China and goes back to China for a couple months every year. Seems to like his sour fruits. He always picks/buys at lot at a time. His wife (also Chinese) likes sweet fruits.
I have other Chinese customers. Generally, they seem to like the sweetest fruits, and eschew anything sour. I once gave a Chinese customer a Montmorency sour cherry as a sample (I told him it was a baking cherry, but he wanted to try it.) He made the funniest face. It was clear he never wanted a cherry like that again.
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The amount of American cherries imported into the Chinese market this year is much less than last year.
Because of the virus, we cannot leave the country now. It is now Chile’s cherries, and the evaluation of Chilean cherries in China is very good. Southern customers like pure sweet cherry varieties. The price of Kordia is the highest on the market, followed by Regina. Santina is the most common and cheapest. Regarding sour cherries, I have never heard of them being planted. The factory usually uses cheap sweet cherries for deep processing. In our local area, the price of cherries was 0.1-0.4 US dollars per 500 grams early cherry this year.
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Here, processed sour cherries run about $0.30 per lb. (or approximately 500 grams) wholesale. It amazes me anybody can grow them so cheap. Around here, nobody grows sour/pie cherries. We sell them fresh for $3.50 per lb. Upick. That’s about what sweet cherries sell for in the stores.
Sour cherries make much better pies/cobblers than sweet cherries. The flavor is much richer and quite tasty when balanced with a sweetener. I’m curious, do citizens in China eat cherry pie/cobbler?
Yes sour cherries are excellent for cooking. My wife doesn’t like cherry pie. I used Carmine Jewel sour cherries to make a cobbler and we were both surprised she liked it very much. I’ll make the cobbler again at Christmas and see how the rest of the family likes it.
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In Oregon we’ve been getting 99 cents/lb late season cherries for a couple years (picked, in the supermarket). I think they’re “sweetheart” variety from various elevations from hood river, they come in late July or August. The 99 cent stuff is always small cherries, maybe it overset (sweetheart is known for that) and the packing house couldn’t charge more for it, along with a glut. Too much sweetheart got planted so growers have been getting killed. The saddest part is they’re stem-on which means 30-50 cents/lb just in picking labor was put into them vs. some of the stem-off early season stuff we get from California which I assume was shaken
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Do you grow any red dates?
I have never heard of cherry pie in China. I know what cherry pie is. Most western restaurants do not serve this kind of food, and this kind of food does not conform to Chinese eating habits. There is no market for sour cherries in China.
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In Xinjiang, China, there are very large red dates planting areas.
At present, the aging of fruit farmers in China is very serious, and the price of primary labor has been much higher than in previous years. However, consumers have lost their purchasing power due to the COVID-19, resulting in very low prices of agricultural products. Many fruit farmers are cutting trees. Since September this year, many provinces have clarified new land policies. China wants to protect food planting, and many places have banned the planting of fruit trees.
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To some degree, I believe this to be culturally true in the Americas and Europe also. People in warmer climates are attracted to sweeter and less acidic fruits. I think it may extend beyond fruits to deserts as well. Italian pastries and cookies tend to be much sweeter than those coming from more northern European countries.
Did you mention what you are using for a rootstock? Cherries grown upright can take quite a while to come into fruiting when grown on traditional rootstocks. In my nursery I use Gisela 12.
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I am curious about the rootstocks you use as well. Your Summit is on Gisela 6. Gisela 6 is a pretty common rootstock in commercial production of sweet cherries in the United States. Fairly recently commercial growers have been switching to Krymsk 5 because of it’s resistance to canker, it’s easier to get good fruit sizing and the royalty for the rootstock costs less. My self I have sweet cherries on Krymsk 5, Krymsk 6, Gisela 12, and tart cherries on Gisela 5 and mazzard.
Do you use other rootstocks? If you use other rootstocks what are your preferred rootstocks for TSA and SSA?
Can you verify this. I do see that Gisela 6 has problems with susceptibility to B. canker but not other Gisela varieties. G12 would seem to be superior to K5.
This is from an Oregon extension bulletin. Krymsk 5 has been used in commercial production in Oregon for more than 10 years. Tree size is similar to Gisela 12 but it is neither as precocious nor as productive.
I sell just as many green tomatoes as I do red.
@sdguanlv , Thank you for sharing your orchard practices. What is the spacing of these cherries and how tall are they allowed to grow?
Well, 10 years ago is recent when it comes to planting and managing trees in an orchard. In a general sense Krymsk 5 and Gisela 12 have similar levels of precocity, canker resistance, and amount of dwarfing. But Krymsk 5 is more widely planted and from what I have seen more widely available.
A good source for comparing the different sweet cherry rootstocks is this article.
This is a similar article but more recent it overlaps a lot with the article above but does present some different information.
One thing I should note is tree sizes for the rootstocks in the articles are for trees grown in the West. For cherries grown in the East these rootstocks are much more dwarfing.
For a discussion on sweet cherry and canker resistance of rootstocks these two references are helpful.
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I’m trying to point members towards the best rootstock for growing cherries and so I questioned your comment, which seemed to be encouraging us to order trees on Krymsk. I found nothing that suggests a majority of Oregon growers are switching to that rootstock.
As far as everything I’ve read, including skimming through what you just posted, G12, if available, would be my first choice and I’d recommend it. I’ve been using it for years, but haven’t tried Krymsk. I buy my trees from Adam’s County Nursery and am able to obtain trees on 12 most seasons, as long as I order early. I don’t believe they distribute trees on Krymsk.
If Krymsk trees were available and 12 not, I wouldn’t hesitate to grow trees on it. Productivity isn’t as important to non-commercial growers, however the relative precocity of 12 is, which is why it would be my first choice. Greater productivity is a bonus.
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Gisela 12 is a good rootstock no disagreement there. At a retail level I can’t find trees on it. My only tree on Gisela 12 was sent by Cummins by mistake. The tree they offered retail was on Gisela 6 but they shipped the right cultivar on Gisela 12 instead of the tree I ordered.
I can find sweet cherries on Gisela 5 and the Krymsk rootstocks, very rarely trees on Gisela 6 and almost never trees on Gisela 12. I have looked at commercial vendors also, all of them list the Gisela series as available rootstocks but there inventories rarely have Gisela 12 trees. I suspect most of the Gisela 12 trees are grown on contract.
I also wish Gisela 5 and 12 was offered as rootstocks but it is also impossible to buy these rootstocks at a retail level. At least in the United States, in Europe they are readily available. Which is why some forum members are reproducing Gisela 5 by cuttings (it’s off patent).
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In the main cherry-producing areas in China, Gisela series are mainstream rootstocks, but most of them are Gisela 6, and Gisela 5、7、12 have been eliminated in China. Gisela 5 is because most fruit growers do not have better water and fertilizer management, which leads to premature aging of the tree and small fruit. Gisela 12 is because most of the production areas are cold regions, Gisela12 is obviously weaker than Gisela 6. Only in the south did it outperform Gisela 12. Gisela 5、6 have no variety protection in China, and Gisela 12, 13, and 17 have variety protection. In the past two years or so, some nurseries used K5 rootstocks, less than 1% of the country’s total. In my nursery, all Gisela 6 was used. In my orchard, Gisela 6 accounted for 80%. 5 accounted for 20%.
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I use Gisela 6
Gisela 12 is very weak here.
Plant spacing is 1.5m.
The row spacing is 2.8m.
The height is 3m。
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