Yes, the zones are funky though. I'm in 6A, yet 200 miles north of central Ohio. I guess the "lake effect" accounts for my higher zone. The Great Lakes keeping it warmer than areas without surrounding huge bodies of water. I don't get why Gurney's is in Indiana and the trees are in Ohio? A long way to go for the test plot! I have been getting into the Zaiger hybrids from CA, and those people have shown that most of the ratings are way off, such as chilling hours and such. Growing 1000 hour chill varieties in 200 hour chill area with no problems. As one can read the CA growers even are trying to grow this there. A little extreme, but valuable info from the attempt. Anyway so I'm trying to grow low chill varieties in a higher chill area, and so far so good, they seem to be adapting. I noticed some of the Zaiger products lowered zone requirements Arctic Jay nectarine was lowered to zone 6 from zone 7 recently. I wanted this tree, but didn't get it because of the zone rating and they go and change it on me! I should have ordered it anyway! Carmine Jewel is rated from Zone 3-8, 3-7, and 2-8 depending on the nursery! The University that developed them says they will not really produce till year 5 or 6 and you should get 20 pounds or more in the 5th year. I wish Gurneys would make another video to show us the plant now, as that video is 3 years old.

MD, Gurney's video shows Carmine Jewel can be train like a small tree. Tony Here is a link that might be useful: CJ

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.

Cherries vary one kind to another on resistance. In our area research at Mt Vernon WA has listed recommended ones more well suited. I went for that which is why I had long ago went with Surefire and the sweet cherry Early Burlat. Over the years my Burlat had been as disease free as the Japanese types of flowering cherries (shirofugen, prunus osima zakura etc.) And superior to others in my neighborhood. One main problem is the flowers bloom to early on the hill heights area in Vancouver WA (above Portland) and even though the bloom is rain resistant the bees are not pollinating during poor conditions and thus little fruit. I must hand pollinate. Other than the above remedy of selecting the right ones and about later bee friendly blooming ones you could try the idea of hand pollinating. I always set fruit on Burlat from Van cherry from my little greenhouse. In your case a Burlat flower from one you could graft to CJ tree could be dried indoors, possibly store it in fridge for a few days, and applied to CJ flowers. Even though nothing that I know of can be found to spray on to prevent infections you can still "wait and see". By that I mean to get your tree to over about 5 years of age because age 2-4 is the most prone years according to tests done West of the Cascades in Oregon.