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nafex - Re: [nafex] sour-cherry varieties

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  • From: "Dave Griffin" <griffingardens@earthlink.net>
  • To: "nafex mailing list at ibiblio" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [nafex] sour-cherry varieties
  • Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:12:58 -0600

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).








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