He's not me!

MadManMark, Thank you for your comment. I'm going to try no matter what, so we will know answers to my questions in a few years. As an update to some of my questions, Honeyberry USA confirmed to me that they do ship to California, and I'm going to order the UofS varieties from them this coming Fall.

stan_, I am looking at doing the same, probably two plants, CP and Juliet. I'm new to planting fruit trees though, and am trying to decide if I should plant in fall or next spring, and whether the answer to that is dependent on the fact I live in zone 5a

I already have an area allocated and soil amended for 11 sour cherry trees: 9 UofS varieties of bushes/small trees and 2 Hungarian trees. I want to try all UofS cultivars that Honeyberry USA sell (plus Lutowka).

In zone 5a, I would most probably plant in spring. In my area, summers are very hot and dry, and young plants have a difficult time surviving if planted in spring. On the other hand, our winters are mild and wet, so planting in fall makes much more sense.

Yeah, after posting this I checked some guides on my local university extension site, and decided spring was way to go too, for me.

Привет Стэн, ну как у тебя там получилось с вишнями? И еще один вопрос, где можно достать шпанку? Это типа гибрида черешни и вишни, некоторые даже покрупнее черешни будут, но кисловатые.

Maybe you should research the variety 'May Duke'.

Stan_ Could you please share the result of your search for Ukrainian type of sour cherry. I used to have them over there and want to plant in East Bay. Dreaming about vareniki c vishnej

I'm not using this forum anymore. Please google for Growing Fruit Forum, it's the best place for people who are interested in fruit growing.

You mean on Garden Web? Because the only other is IFG and they suck. Mean people..who have something more on the agenda then friendly talk. Its like drunks in a bar taking something way too serious as well as giving no better advice.

Ahhhhh. My father always talks about the great sour cherries he had in his home town in Norther Hungary (now Slovakia) He has looked for many years, but could not find the types he recalls. And they grew wild in many cases as do the mulberry trees where to day they complain about the stains on the patios, but back then, it's what enabled them to survive Russian occupation and WWII in many ways. I am in Livermore and have not come across any sour cherries that I like nor has my father. But I will keep a look out.

Of the tart cherries, the variety I am aware of with the lowest chill requirement comes from Iran; it is called Albaloo. It would be very happy in zone 9. (Supposedly good flavor but not the most edible flesh surrounding the pit) It is also possible to hybridize sweet cherry with tart cherry; the resulting mixed offspring will eventually develop fruit but the seeds inside that fruit will be sterile. (So what if you hybridized a low chill sweet cherry with Carmine Jewel?)

You might also be interested in the cherry variety 'May Duke', if you can find it (the original one).

I just bought English Morello sour cherry tree from Trees of Antiquity.

As I know the best sour cherry are on the Ukraine and Canada. In the Canada a huge Ukrainian community and sour cherry orchard is a dream of Ukrainian majority . Take a look the best sour cherry in Canada.

In California we have very low number of chill hours that prevents use of Canadian cherry. I planted English Morello this Spring with hope it will be a good match. Thank you.

vgoretsky67 - How did it go?

Not vgor, but an update on mine (Romeo & Juliet varieties, planted five years ago in zone 5a): it's been very slow going so far, planted bare seedling I got in the mail from MN, after half a decade they are maybe 3' tall bushes still, haven't really seen any fruiting yet. In fact it took I think 3 years before I even saw significantl flowering.

But they're also planted in a semi-shaded area (surrounded on 3 sides by other, taller bushes); they get direct sunlight only a handful of hours each day, at best.

For two years after planting the tree was growing and harvesting very well.

Suddenly the graft has died last summer, while root stock was in perfect condition.

Wont be planting English Morello again.