I have my CJ for 3 years and so far nothing negative. It started fruiting last summer. No disease or insect damage so far. The regular bush cherries (nunking) are completely care free here, so I hope CJ will be care free too. It is own root, so you don't need to worry about rootstock. For nunking cherries, if you harvest them w/o waiting too long you will beat the birds. I don't know yet if it is going to be the same with CJ, but if not, it is easy to put a net over the bush. It is much easier with 5-6 feet bush than when you have to net the tree. The taste was good, but I had only a handful of first cherries. Hopefully this year it will be a real harvest for me. My zone is 6B, I am in MD. Summers here are quite hot. Olga

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

don555, thanks for the info and sharing your experience. That is reassuring. I had a North Star cherry that died after 2 years & I thought it might have been too wet, even though it was in an improved area (it also might have gotten Preen sprinkled near it). If I did use pots permanently, they would be some of those big things than trees come in and put in one spot to stay. Hungryfrozencanuck, thank you also. Those articles were interesting and fun (esp. liked the one about the catch frame). Watering is the downside to using pots -- our water rates have been zooming lately, not from shortage but to pay for upgrades in the sewage system in my city. My bill is triple what it was in 2010, and I am already keeping blueberries in pots. I am really excited about these cherries. I have a pot with nanking cherry too, it bloomed for the first time last year, and it is covered with blossoms now, so maybe this year some fruit if tonight's freeze doesn't kill them?

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.