North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Dave Griffin" <griffingardens@earthlink.net>]

I don't know how many oil changes it has been since the Saskatchewan 
cherries - Carmine Jewel and Crimson Passion - were talked about, but they 
are big winners in central MN, zone 4a. Hardy as nails, 6' tall and very 
productive, they have Morello type fruit with mahogany skin, red flesh and 
juice (Evans, Montmorency, Meteor are amarelle - bright red skin, yellow 
flesh, and clear juice). The MI Hungarians are wood hardy here but not 
reliably flower hardy and they are gaining an infamous rep for being 
non-productive (lots of flowers but not much fruit set). North Star is about 
the same (border line) in wood but has hardier flowers. It has good quality 
small fruit but gets brown rot very badly in warm wet weather. Evans (get 
out the filter wrench) is more disease resistant, has less bird pressure 
because it ripens later, is much hardier and hangs well so it can be left on 
until the acid drops (tastes sweeter-there is just as much sugar in 
Montmorency as in Bing). Surefire is clean here, has good tart fruit and 
seems to be hardy. I think the S fruit you mentioned might be Sumadinka 
which is very productive, clean and hardy here with Surefire type tart fruit 
with rich cherry flavor. Meteor, the suspected seed parent of Evans, has a 
bitter aftertaste to me.

Carmine Jewel parentage is Northstar (English Morello x a Hungarian cherry) 
x P. fruiticosa selection. It is reported to have the North Star 
susceptibility to Brown rot in bad weather but not as bad. The fruit quality 
is very good with no bitterness. Crimson passion has one of the MI 
Hungarians as a quality parent and has low acid fruit. It is less productive 
than some of the unreleased cultivars but can have sweet cherry sized fruit 
that is of the very best quality.

I would like to know if anyone else has had productivity problems with the 
MI Hungarians. Thanks. Its time for me to make a culling decision on them.

Dave


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Henderson" <jhenderson@ithaca.edu>
To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, February 20, 2012 3:16 PM
Subject: Re: [nafex] sour-cherry varieties


> Montmorency has been the standard for pie-bakers and growers for 
> generations for good reasons both involving tree and fruit. It's major 
> limitations are occasionally soft fruit and susceptibility to cherry  leaf 
> spot.
>
> Danube and Jubileum are both much sweeter than Montmorency. Both have  the 
> advantages and disadvantages of a cherry that is not quite an 
> eating-out-of-hand variety and not quite a variety with the expected  sour 
> cherry taste.
>
> Minnesota-developed Northstar's main advantage over Montmorency is  winter 
> hardiness, which should not be a problem in NJ.
>
> A discussion of Bali (Evans) on NAFEX? Must be time to change the oil  in 
> my car.
>
> John Henderson
> Sage Hen Farm
> Lodi, NY
> (in a frost pocket within Zone 5)
>
>
> On Feb 20, 2012, at 12:01 PM, nafex-request@lists.ibiblio.org wrote:
>
> What are the different opinions on the various commonly available sour- 
> cherry varieties:
>
>
> Danube
> Jubilieum (really a sweet-cherry x sour-cherry hybrid)
> Montmorency (really a Nankin-cherry x sour-cherry hybrid)
> Northstar
> Bali (Evans)
>
>
> I live in NJ (6b).