Cherries

[Sneakers]

The PNW has taken a big bashing politically, but the cherries from there this year have been outstanding. I've been buying them since the first of the season, and every single bag has been great. Sweet, firm, really good, and have been on sale a lot. I haven't thrown out one single berry out of any bag so far.

I even went so far as to look up propagating the seeds, and whether they'd make fruit. They do, so I have a number of seeds in stratification now.

 

[UglyBear]

I even went so far as to look up propagating the seeds, and whether they'd make fruit. They do, so I have a number of seeds in stratification now.

i had heard (probably wrongly) that commercial cherry trees are just like commercial apple and pear trees, cuttings of one tree from long ago grafted onto seed-grown stumps.
This guarantees consistency, but because all the commercial trees are basically genetically identical clones, they all can be taken out by a bug to which they don’t have resistance.
Your cherries grown from seed, just like any wild-bred living thing, might be just like its mother cherry, or could have completely unexpected fruit.

Hey, if the new ones are good fruit and have some genetic diversity, you could be a millionaire!!! A nice addition to the SS

 

[Sneakers]

i had heard (probably wrongly) that commercial cherry trees are just like commercial apple and pear trees, cuttings of one tree from long ago grafted onto seed-grown stumps.

That was the first thing I investigated, and it doesn't seem to hold for cherries, although it would not be totally unexpected. The articles I read did say that fresh fruit works best because grocery store fruit had been refrigerated and may impact seed viability.

We'll see! I'm always up for an experiment....

 

[ontheriver]

Years ago I planted two cherry trees. IIRC you had to have a "male" and "female". Only one took and never produced fruit. I could be wrong about that....

 

[Sneakers]

FINALLY got back to this after properly stratifying the seeds, they've been in cold storage for a while. Planted them last week, and this morning noticed at least 2 shoots breaking the soil.

It will be interesting to see what happens, if I can get fruit in a couple of years.

 

[my-thyme]

I have plenty of room for any extra seedlings...

 

[Sneakers]

I have plenty of room for any extra seedlings...

Ok, I planted a bunch, we'll see what pops up.

 

[stgislander]

What kind of cherry?

 

[Sneakers]

What kind of cherry?

Store bought sweet cherries from Giant, I think they were from the northwest, Oregon/Washington. Don't think they had a specific variety listed.

So far I see about 6 seedlings, one is an inch high.

 

[TPD]

So Giant cherries?

 

[Sneakers]

So Giant cherries?

 

[stgislander]

The largest sold Northwest cherry variety I believe is the Bing.

I remember having cherry trees as a kid. They were sour cherries. At 700ft elevation, they didn't grow well though. The big orchards with the sweet cherries were all up over 1200ft.

 

[Sneakers]

The largest sold Northwest cherry variety I believe is the Bing.

Makes sense. That's most likely what these came from.

Again, just an experiment. I'm not expecting much, but it would be kinda neat if they fruited.

 

[Sneakers]

I have to learn to label things. These things that are sprouting aren't cherries. They're potatoes. I had some in the kitchen that went bad and started sprouting, so I stuck them in the dirt. The cherries I had put in some peat pots, and they did not sprout.

 

[PJay]

This thread made me hungry for cherry something...just put a cherry pie in oven.

 

[jrt_ms1995]

This thread made me hungry for cherry something...

Cherry-stuffed baked potato, maybe?

 

[PJay]

Cherry-stuffed baked potato, maybe?

Help yourself. Pie and a scoop of vanilla ice cream for me.

 

[spr1975wshs]

Cherry cider was a Big Thing in the Northeast a couple centuries ago.
As I recall from my brewing/wine making research, at one time there were 278 different varieties of cherry grown in New York.
A similar variety of apples were grown in New England.

 

[Merlin99]

I have to learn to label things. These things that are sprouting aren't cherries. They're potatoes. I had some in the kitchen that went bad and started sprouting, so I stuck them in the dirt. The cherries I had put in some peat pots, and they did not sprout.

might be a sterile hybrid.

 

[Merlin99]

or it might be that they require an environmental trigger to sprout.