Your CP trees look very nice, Clark, you’re going to be very busy this year picking all those cherries.
I gave my Romeo and Juliet bushes about a 10ft space. Based on what your results are, that may have been a good idea. The Juliet is already over 4’ tall now, on 2nd leaf.
Clark, I’ve got just one Juliet but so far it’s outgrown the CJ. It’s 2nd leaf this Spring and and actually had a moderate bloom and is setting fruit. Year 1 was slow at first, but a late Summer growth spurt took it to 5 feet. Surprisingly though, a month after it went into the ground it threw off a sucker that I foolishly tried to dig too soon and lost it. It put out a 2nd sucker late Summer that is now about 6" tall and already branching. How big should I let it get before I try to dig and move it? How old do the Cherry suckers get before they grow enough roots to go independent? Thanks!
If they sprout in the spring and summer I leave them until the following year and dig them in the late winter/ spring. The suckers are very large and established in that time. Carmine Jewell seem to go through transplant shock worse than many bushes so larger amount of roots helps a lot.
Glad you mentioned the transplant shock. When I bought the Carmine Jewels, they were 3 yr plants with heavy roots from HoneyberryUSA and the transplant shock was pretty obvious, while the smaller Juliet didn’t suffer at all. Thanks for the advice, I won’t consider moving the sucker until late Winter!
I think I will keep the bush as is for now because I go more for fruit than ease of picking. As I age more I will do exactly what you said and shorten it up a bit. It might recover some growth after harvest but the bush will need to rest some as well.
Has anyone tried putting a tarp on the ground and shaking the bushes to harvest them? They actually show a homemade harvester on the Michigan state page.
Lilacs also form flower buds after flowering, so you prune right after flowering. I have cut lilac bushes in half after flowering and they flowered the next year. You have time after harvest, and I would think they would be fine.
Has anyone tried Lutowka in addition to these cherries? I put in Romeo, Juliet, CP and Lutowka last year. We had a super wet season and I was afraid I lost the Lutowka toward the end, it was just a tiny stick to begin with. I think it’s going to live, but our snow is just melting so I will have to wait a bit more to see for sure. I see the Romeo and CP getting on it trying to swell (those were much larger). Just curious if anyone had compared Lutowka for taste and yield.
I grafted Passion and CJ onto my Montmorency tree this weekend. Anyone try this before? Are they compatible? If it works I might save some montmorency seeds or try to root some cuttings and graft Juliet onto them in a couple years. Might make for an interesting tree!
Kinda funny, I actually just did that this morning. I grafted several small Crimson Passion sticks onto a small Carmine Jewel bush. I also grafted a few CP sticks onto a Mesabi tree today. I’ll probably do the same with some Romeos tomorrow. I did have one succesful Juliet graft take on a Carmine Jewel last year and it is probably 18" long now. Hopefully I can keep the rabbits away from it.
Thanks for posting this . I hope to get some fruit this year . I will be planting seed also . Mine are starting to drop petals . I should know soon . Bush is loaded with blossoms .
I did it the other way around and put Montmorency on one of three trunks of my CP. I just did it so not sure how compatible, but I would think they would be. Reading the charts it looks like you can put sours on sweets too, but no sweets on sours. At least with the rootstocks. I wonder if CP would fruit better on different roots?
No kidding. Those look great…!! I’m glad you are younger than me. What I see is a million cherries to pick and process. They sure will be nice come winter…!!