Unreleased University of Saskatchewan prarie cherries we want & what we know about them contrasted with romance series cherries

For those of you who might be in Canada the best option is just to order one of these inexpensive cherries and try it for $25 C

"This is one of 7 cherries the University of Saskatchewan has released in 2022 for their 100 anniversary of horticulture. Part of the Musketeer series! Developed by cross breeding Mongolian and sour cherries. Produces heavy crops of dark red cherries with sweet flesh. It is very exciting to be able to offer these brand new cherries to the prairies!

Zone 2

H6’ W4’ "

"This is one of 7 cherries the University of Saskatchewan has released in 2022 for their 100 anniversary of horticulture. Part of the Musketeer series!

These cherries are best grown as a shrub for the prairies, you can however select a trunk and make it a tree but it will be less cold hardy. Self pollinating you only need one plant to get fruit. It is best to let them ripen on the bush for a sweeter berry. Choose a full sun location for best fruit production. They will tolerate part sun. They can tolerate clay soil if it is a well drained site but prefer sandy loam. Add compost in the spring as a mulch and this will suffice for fertilizer.

Zone 2

H6’ "

“Tart Cherry - D’Artagnan
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This is one of 7 cherries the University of Saskatchewan has released in 2022 for their 100 anniversary of horticulture. Part of the Musketeer series!

It has burgundy coloured fruit with flavour similar to Valentine and Juliet. The shorter stature and limber, arching branches. D’Artagnan also requires far less pruning than other varieties. Although Dr. Bors developed D’Artagnan with commercial growers in mind, this sour cherry is well suited to home gardeners who want a hedge of cherries. They are dwarf and willowy, great for a hedge - to form a hedge, plant them one metre apart in a row about one metre wide. Mulch the area so there is no grass or weed competition. For the first few years the plants will be individuals. When suckers begin to appear between the plants, don’t remove them, just let them grow up to fill in the rows,

Zone 2

H6’ & W8’ Maximum"

" The fourth musketeer is out for a battle!

In honour of the 100 Years of Horticulture Science celebration at the University of Saskatchewan, Dr. Bob Bors (Plant Breeder with University of Saskatchewan Fruit Program) released a new dwarf sour cherry variety called D’Artagnan!

Why the name D’Artagnan?

D’Artagnan was the fourth musketeer in the 1800’s tale of “The Three Musketeers”. This is the fourth variety of Dr. Bor’s “Musketeer” series. The other three varieties in this series have not been released in Canada yet.

D’artagnan was developed out of crossing ‘Kerr’s Easy Pick’ and ‘Cacanski Rubin’ as part of the Dr. Bor’s ‘Romance Series’ Breeding Program. Thus, it’s closely related to Romance series having some of the same parentage as Juliet, Valentine and Crimson Passion. It produces burgundy coloured fruit with flavour similar to Valentine and Juliet.

(Picture courtesy: Dr. Bob Bors)

D’Artagnan offers great dependability, flavour, and ease of harvest for commercial growers. It’s shorter than the Romance series topping out at about 6’ in height when fully mature whereas the romance series averaging 8feet in height. In recent years, commercial growers have been using special sideways harvesting machines to harvest sour cherries. The shorter stature and limber, arching branches of D’Artagnan are well suited to sideways harvesters which bends the branches over a conveyor belt. The fruit only drops a few inches versus several feet with conventional upright harvesting machines, resulting in far less damage to fruit. D’Artagnan also requires far less pruning than other varieties, which reduces labour costs for growers. While this is the best cherry variety for sideways harvesters, it is also the best variety for homeowners that want a hedge of cherries. It can be grown as complementary crop with Saskatoons because both crops are adapted to sideways harvester.

(Picture courtesy: Dr. Bob Bors)

Floramaxx specializes in tissue culture propagation of University of Saskatchewan’s dwarf sour cherries. If you are interested in having D’Artagnan in your home or an orchard, please don’t hesitate book your plants by emailing us at info@flormaxx.ca or giving us a call on 1-778-754-6299.

Happy #sourcherry growing!"

Ok so what cherry is missing of the 4 released you might wonder? Wowza aka big red

"This is one of 7 cherries the University of Saskatchewan has released in 2022 for their 100 anniversary of horticulture.

Fruit is vivid red, high yielding, twice as large of fruit size as Carmine Jewel. Bob Bors recalls Big Red’ had unusually LARGE red cherry that was 50% longer than wide with small lobes on the bottom. It looked like a miniature red delicious apple. I’d never seen any cherry that looked like that. It tasted good, didn’t seem to have winterkill. Currently being marketed in the USA as Wowza.

Zone 2

H5-8’"

Remember the muskateer series is tring to compete with the romance series

Cherries

It all began with carmine jewell, which is still my favorite

https://research-groups.usask.ca/fruit/Fruit%20crops/sour-cherries.php

Sweet thing and cutie pie are coming soon

big-red-cherry.pdf (124.7 KB)
valentine-cherry.pdf (653.5 KB)
dartagnan-cherry.pdf (338.6 KB)
growing-and-using-sour-cherries-2021.pdf (143.4 KB)
sweet-thing.pdf (214.2 KB)
cutie-pie-cherry-final-1.docx (554.3 KB)

In the usa and still want the bush cherries. Here you go the Canadian cherries can be ordered here

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