What I got was cherry rain crack!

I've only ever heard of that being a sweet cherry problem. Most published articles will go out of their way to say it isn't a problem with tart cherries.

Half of the gallon I picked were cracked.

My Early Richmond and Montmorency have no cracked cherries.

Last year I had a small crop on my young North Star, and a few of them cracked as well. (I've learned that there is a connection in the North Star and the Carmine Jewel BTW)

Granted June '14 turned out to be the third wettest June in Iowa's recorded history, but still... a tart cherry suffering rain crack!

Carmine Jewel is a cross betwwen Mongolian Cherry and the Tart Cherry. Maybe Mongolian Cherry cracks under heavy rain.

Tony

My Early Richmond was planted in 1995 and I've never had a rain cracked cherry to my recollection in all those 20 or so years. Same for the Monty at our rental house in town. (Though we've only owned it for about 10 years)

But it has been a super wet year, and I don't imagine it's fair to judge things based on this out-of-the-ordinary weather. As Tony mentioned, maybe it's the parentage on these.

My problem is that I'd been toying with planting a few acres to these U of S bushes, and now I'm a little gun-shy.

Sounds like the sweet cherry growers battle it regularly. Apparently there's a spray that actually repels water, etc.

That's probably more than I'm up for though, and maybe premature to even think of.

My evans is full of ripe cherries right now...haven't seen any crack, but have seen plenty of brown rot.

Out of hand I still didn’t think they were sweet tasting at all. I got a 10 Brix most of the samples I took. In fact, I got a 10 Brix yesterday off the handful I left on just to see. (I did get one 12.5 or 13 early on but that was an anomaly) Those I picked yesterday were all degraded to one degree or another, but I still figured they’d read a higher number being on the bush until 7/7 -vs- the first harvest on 6/22. But the Brix was essentially identical.

Thing is I’d bought into the “ …leave them on until almost black” deal and I’m wondering why now. I cannot imagine them being any better than what they were when I first picked.

On 7/1/14 I exchanged emails with Dr. Bob Bors, Head of the Fruit Program - Dept. of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan. He said “Carmine Jewel has the lowest Brix of any of our cherries. Our other cherries are usually 5 Brix higher. But two years ago it was bright and sunny when CJ ripened but very wet when others ripened, this resulted in CJ having Brix slightly better than the others”

He also said “The idea of not waiting for a higher Brix is catching on here in SK because of brown rot appearing in several orchards. Sounds like that would have been best for you this season”

I concur completely.

He said he’s rarely seen rain cracking on CJ (except when hail hit unripe fruit, it weakened it to a point where that spot cracked under heavy rain) but that he has seen rain crack once on Crimson Passion, noting that it’s “…one of the highest Brix, and also the firmest cherry of ours”

So again, for a cooking cherry I can’t complain about the near perfect cherries I harvested first off. I’m just not planning on leaving any to get “nearly black” or “higher Brix” going forward, they’re a delight when deep purple in my opinion.

Do you think you will go ahead and plant number of them (or any others from U of S) anyway? I would be interested to hear - could you post on this thread once you decide?
I have some space available & have been thinking of planting some of them. Do not have any experience in growing fruit of any kind - but one has to start somewhere...

Thank you. Rina

My wife wants me to plant that field to Aronia Berries (She's a Realtor and sold a place that had them, learned there is some kind of Growers Asso. that you join, they arrange for a mechanical picker and even haul them to wherever they take them to ship out to market, etc)

That doesn't interest me a ton, and Bernis @ Honeyberry USA told me the Aronia Berries winter-killed the top half of the bushes this past winter. Said they'd come back though.

I was curious on the longevity of the U of S bush cherries and Dr. Bors said their original seedling rows are 22 years old and still producing. He did say that for longevity one should grow them as multiple trunk bushes, using renewal thinning "...get rid of a trunk or two every year or two to allow new ones to form or let suckers in the row come up to replace them"

He said "...perhaps a trunk should be removed somewhere around 7 year old? maybe 10? I think the bushes could go on for many decades"

For now I'm still on the fence, for a few reasons though.

Are you sure he said this,...seedlings are inferior, not true to name.

My Joice when picking,.. Juliet, Crimson Passion and Cupid,..still too young for production.

Yeah but were not that talking suckers, not seedlings? If you only have CJ, then seedlings should be true too. But I thought the idea was to propagate suckers, which are not seedlings. No root stock so certainly suckers are clones.

I was looking for a good tart cherry. The dark color and all sound good. Plus the size is cool too. I grow sweet cherries so I'm not looking for an alternative. I'm looking for a good cooking cherry. I'm not sure what I like best gardening or cooking? I love cooking with my own home grown foods.
The commercial sweet cherries are huge this year, excellent too. Expensive also, but growing them myself I know why. Not easy in any way.
Thanks for the tip on pruning, very cool!

For best longevity one should grow the cherries as bushes with multiple trunks. Using renewal thinning you should get rid of a trunk or two every year or two to allow new ones to form or let suckers in the row come up to replace them. Our original seedling rows are 22 years old and are still alive and fairly healthy. On a severe -50C winter, we didn’t lose trees but we lost the oldest trunks of most trees. Specifically it was those branches that had born fruit for many years and were hardly making any growth. Perhaps a trunk should be removed somewhere around 7 years old? Maybe 10? I’d think the bushes could go on for many decades.

Dr. Bob Bors
Head of the Fruit Program
Dept. of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan
51 Campus Drive
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A8
Canada

www.fruit.usask.ca

Thank you for the answer & for the additional tips.

Konrad

That is where I first read about them, and like description...how old are yours (too young for production)

Thnx. Rina

I do think local growing conditions are going to make all the difference in the world with respect to how they should be handled. Certainly the SK weather is pretty far removed from where I'm at, and naturally most information published comes from all that research up in SK. So time in the ground and a few variable seasons and experience will be helpful here in Iowa, or anywhere in the lower 48 I'd imagine.

That being said, I can't recommend CJ enough, despite my rain crack thing this year. I learned my lesson and that's that. If I'd have harvested all mine when I did the first ones I'd still be blissfully ignorant of even the possibility of CJ's rain cracking. (or for that matter BR, mold, and SWD, all of which paid my CJ's a visit!)

And again, it's not as if I was harvesting red CJ's, these were a very deep purple and almost as perfect a looking cherry as you could ask for. I just think I gain nothing by the risk of letting them get a teensy darker.

But the confusion is that you read things like "CJ's are the first to ripen and the first fruits always command the highest prices" Then you'll get the other end like "Most people pick them too soon. They hold on to the bush very well and if left on the bush they can become almost black.."

So I think it's just extremely important to keep in mind where you're growing them at, and do what needs to be done regarding harvest and sprays, etc.

Incidentally, Dr. Bors said they've not had SWD up there so he had no real insight, but that he knew the USDA was hard at it, and had even heard that some fruit researchers had funds cut to divert those monies to SWD.

But these U of S bush cherries are so easy to spray (and get full coverage on...) and it's really more fun than work to harvest my 5 bushes.

The opposite must be said about the full size trees I have. Love how productive they've been, and the quality of fruit etc., but they're just not nearly as easy to spray or harvest. Lots and lots of cherries, but as I age I do not enjoy the upper reaches!

Doing it all from the ground is a treat.

You're right about cost on things Drew51, the local orchard gets $3.50 a pint for tart cherries, and the local greenhouse gets $3.00 a pint. (And these tart cherries are either Monty or North Star - Not CJ)

A Crimson Passion, Juliet and Cupid I put in two years ago,..at least another two years to go!