North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Bernie Nikolai <BNikolai@shaw.ca>]

Maheleb is far more common here, and Montmorency seems to do fine, but often 
dies back in a tougher winter for us, when grafted onto it.  I haven't heard 
of anyone using Mazzard with sour cherries up here.  Its all "Evans Cherry", 
or more recently, the 5 new ones developed at the U of Saskatchewan, sold by 
DNA Gardens (Dnagardens.com).

To me, the U of Saskatchewan cherries are the way to go in zones 2,3, or 4. 
They have recently named their test selections, and grouped them into the 
"Romance" series.  I was VERY impressed with the fresh taste of two in 
particular, ALMOST sweet cherry taste, and rock hardy to below -40C.  Test 
selection "Bob 7-21-31.0" has just been named "Juliette", and wow, is it 
ever good!  And test selection "Big Momma" has been named "Crimson Passion". 
In terms of fresh taste, both far surpass Montmorency or Evans in my 
opinion, and are significantly hardier, but I don't know about the 
processing capabilities, as mine are too young to produce yet at my 
experimental orchard.  I understand some of these are virus indexed, and can 
now be sold to the US.  So if anyone is in a cold climate and wants to grow 
great cherries, give them a shout and get some tissue cultured plants.  No 
rootstock required as the plants are tissue cultured, and are on their own 
roots.  So if the top gets eaten by a deer/mouse/moose, no worries, they 
just resprout from the roots and soon you are off to the races again :)))

Bernie
(and I'll try to hold the Edmonton wind from invading BC for you Derry.  On 
Sunday it was +12C here, and I played golf outside here in Edmonton for the 
first time ever in February.  If I went today at -28C ish, I'd really have 
to employ "winter rules" :)


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "derry and bill" <wchase@interchange.ubc.ca>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2006 6:42 PM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Mazzard (cherry) r/s hardiness


Bernie,

What's the story with sour cherries on Mazzard?

Derry

(where we can feel that arctic wind coming from Edmonton! 4°C but with
wind chill it must be about -10°C)

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