Your 2025 choices for D. virginiana cultivars?

To be clear, it really depends on the length of your growing season, which is only loosely correlated with USDA Zone. For comparison, my last frost tends to come in very late April or early May; temps are >50 F 24/7 after May 15. First frost in autumn comes mid-October to very early November.

Americans:

H-118 is supposed to be early. I grow it but my trees are very young and have not fruited yet.

WSB-10 is early, starting to ripen here in late Sept.

IDK about Yates.

Most observers say that 100-46 is late, though I have seen 1-2 disagree.

@Barkslip says that Yates is early but H-118 is the earliest.

So among these 4, I’d pick H-118.

Among other possibilities, I-115 (Juhl x Garretson) is rated by Claypool as VE (very early) and noted as “Jim’s earliest.”

Hybrids:

Here, Kassandra and JT-02 / Mikkusu ripen, but JT-02 just barely and both need to be finished indoors. I grow Nikita’s gift but it has not fruited yet and I expect it to be too late. I bought Dar Sofiyivki last summer, expecting it to combine early ripening and high quality. This winter I acquired scions of Chuchupaka with similar expectations.

So I like the choice of Dar Sofiyivki but see Chuchupaka as an alternate.

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