What size cherry bush / plant did you start out with? That's a lot of growth for 3 years.

Those cherries look really great Don. I love the color that they have. It will be interesting to see if the cherries that are left on the bush, do sweeten more.

With the winter damage that I had on my CJs, I think that I'm still 2 years away from a harvest like that. Mine are the same age in the ground as yours but started out much smaller at planting time.

It looks like your bush is now about 5ft? Don't they have to be 7 to 7.5 ft to produce the 20# crops?

Did you have to use and sprays this season?

Very nice Don! That's a cool pitting operation (now I'm gonna have to be on the lookout for a vintage pitter...)

I've never used a pitter on my other tart cherries, but these CJ's seem a lot more firm and less juicy. I can see that a pitter will work.

In fact Bernis at HBUSA sent me a short video presentation of a trip she made to a "Pick Your Own" orchard in SK. They were using a modern manual cherry pitter and said you could do a whole pail in about 20 min. (looked like a 5 qt Ice Cream bucket)

They said they found that if they chilled them in the freezer to not quite frozen, that they seemed to pit better.

Great shot of showing how the berries kinda hide in there. I like that aspect too, because even though some birds still found their way to the inside it's clearly a lot less often.

Very nice Don!
We've tried various similar looking pluncher type cherry pitters but returned them all because of the one's in a while misses,..hate to think about the odd pit in the pie,..worth yet to bite into and brake a tooth! Now we pit with a single hand held pitter,.. you'll have the pit every time in you hand.

Any pit misses with this vintage pitter?

jtburton, it was a fair size when I planted it, definitely not a plug. Here's a pic about a week after I planted it in May 2011:
{{gwi:102765}}

Northernmn, the bush is 5 to 5.5 feet tall and I keep it in check a bit with garden shears once a year to tidy up the new growth (trimmed about a month ago). I think they say mature size is 6 to 8 feet, so it's got another foot or two to go.

I only ever sprayed it in the first year, because I fertilized it when I planted it and that led to soft growth which attracted aphids. Since then no fertilizer and no need to spray.

iowager, yes, I could see that if you had some practise you could pit an ice cream pail in 20 minutes, maybe even less. Interesting idea about chilling the cherries, though for this variety it doesn't seem necessary.

Konrad, I'll have to wait until we've eaten these cherries before I can answer your question about missed-pits. The pitter seemed very good at removing the pits, but if pitted cherries built up in the bowl they could block the exit chute, and then an unpitted cherry could roll over the top and get into the bowl. Only happened a few times, not sure if I caught them all or not. I have a single hand-pitter too, but wouldn't that take forever, or can one get very fast at hand-pitting one cherry at a time?

I visit Northern Michigan for summer vacations and stop by the pick you own cherry orchards there to get fresh cherries. How does the flavor compare to a 'typical' cherry tree?

I have seen the small 4" pots sold online but where did you buy yours?

>>can one get very fast at hand-pitting one cherry at a time?Yes,..especially when you have your hubby helping along,..two pitters.

These are aimed at colder zones, but do they perform better than "tree" cherries in the East?

By the way, what actual species are these hybridized from? Are they in the P. besseyi line or something else?

Do they actually taste like a tart cherry fruit (P. cerasus)?

By the way, what actual species are these hybridized from?

Prunus cerasus x P. fruticosa

About 5 other cultivars exist.
Romeo
Juliette
Crimson Passion
Valentine
Cupid

This post was edited by Drew51 on Tue, Aug 19, 14 at 21:22

In Kansas the carmine jewel cherries eventually turn almost black. They have a delicious flavor and ripened here in June. The bushes you are growing look great!

Here's a pic of my various cherries side-by-side. The Evans is thought to maybe be a seedling from Montmorency -- similar in most respects but a bit hardier.

All too tart to sit down and eat a bowl of them, but Juliet is the easiest to eat out-of-hand, with Cupid a close second. Those two I can eat quite a few of at a sitting, the others all get pretty tart after a half dozen or so. The Evans isn't bad either but it didn't seem to have as much taste as the darker cherries.

The Canadian quarters in the photo are identical is size to a U.S. quarter.
{{gwi:122146}}

Thanks Don, Excellent info and a great picture. I still need to find a source for Juliet and Cupid down here south of the border. My CJs are looking pretty good again.

Don,

I have Carmine Jewel and Crimson Passion. To me the Crimson Passion was sweeter than Carmine Jewel. Have you had the chance to compare Crimson Passion with the rest of your cherry collection?

Tony

Here's an article about testing these cherries in Michigan.

Here is a link that might be useful: making an impact

I didn't realize they had P. fruiticosa in their background.

Yeah the Mongolian cherry. The Romance series has been worked on for about 70 years, it was in limbo a lot of the time. More releases are probably expected. The article I linked mentions Dr. Amy ­Iezzoni, whom has released 3 or 4 cultivars for MSU, Balaton, and others.
Grandpa's orchard sells them.

Great post Don.

I'm curious, does your circa 1925 pitter pit more than one cherry with each handle movement, or is it one cherry at a time, even though you can fill the hopper with multiple cherries.

My wife has some cherry pitters which will remove pits from six cherries per handle thrust, but the cherries have to be loaded in the pitter by hand (not through a hopper). Wondering which one is better.

Great looking photos and cherries BTW.

Greetings:

Usually when I pit my cherries, I wash them after pitting and then chill in the refrigerator over night and pit them the
next day. Cold cherries are not as juicy and pit easier.

This year being a poor year for all 3 of my cherries as far as
yield (Mesabi, North Star and Surecrop), we picked a bunch of Montmorency the first week in August in Door County of Wisconsin which is a prime tart cherry growing area in the U.S. We were on vacation there and happy to
be there during the cherry season.

I noticed the growers there commercially harvest with the shaking machines and then have the fruit dump into ice water to chill them before pitting.

When we got home from vacation with the cherries, I put mine in the sink with ice water then pitted. It worked really well! A little cold on my fingers picking up the cherries but it was a good tip since I did not have room in the refrigerator to chill them all overnight like I usually do before
pitting.

My modern plunger type pitter works great but the orange
plastic tab that prevents the cherry from falling thru the hole for the pits is wearing out. Can't seem to find a replacement for it. Hate to buy a new pitter because of a worn out piece of plastic. There must be a way to make something that would fit.

Does anyone on this list grow bush cherries in a climate like the wet PNW? Our spring rains normally devastate bush cherries. In E. Oregon people grow them successfully.
John S
PDX OR

Interesting thread, I hope you keep posting updates in this and coming years. Now that non-CJ varieties are available in US I am considering planting a couple. But does anyone else have the problem that all the threads that don555 posts (not just on this thread, but everywhere) have the image of a kitten with the text "photo not found" on it? I even tried signing in to photobucket in case that was the issue, but no luck.

I dont see pictures either.... Im thinking about getting a Juliette from honeyberryusa, sounds like a good fresh eating variety. Can anyone recommend a pitter to use for Carmine Jewel bushes? Mine are getting big and I expect a decent harvest next year.