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Progress report cherries
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tahir



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45389
Location: Essex
PostPosted: Thu Jul 07, 11 9:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Started on Penny & Sweetheart today, both have been affected by brown rot, might be because they're susceptible, or just how wet it was when they blossomed.

judith



Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire
PostPosted: Thu Jul 07, 11 9:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

judith wrote:
tahir wrote:
Blue Peter wrote:
What colour were the cherries?


Believe me that's complete b*llux, last year all our cherries suffered equally; white, red, black, even morello (which Tiptree grow unprotected)


Now I hesitate (very briefly ) to take issue with the DS Soft Fruit God, but last year I lost about half of my red cherries to birds, but had practically no losses from the white ones. Purely anecdotal, I am sure, but my blackbirds really weren't interested in the Merton Glory.


In the interests of full disclosure, I probably ought to admit that the birds had the bl**dy lot this year - before they were ripe.

tahir



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45389
Location: Essex
PostPosted: Thu Jul 07, 11 9:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

judith wrote:
In the interests of full disclosure, I probably ought to admit that the birds had the bl**dy lot this year - before they were ripe.


They don't take long to work it out, especially if there's any wasp damage, they can then sniff out ripeness very successfully.

judith



Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire
PostPosted: Thu Jul 07, 11 9:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

That's the really annoying thing, they looked soooo good - practically no damage at all as far as I could see. Ah well. Nets next year.

I really hate blackbirds!

tahir



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45389
Location: Essex
PostPosted: Fri May 25, 12 12:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Like the plums given the 6 weeks of constant rain we've got good set and likewise the pigeons have mullered the trees, vast lengths of branch with no buds left on, rope bangers kept going out, changed over to gas cannon too late to make a difference.

gray_b



Joined: 24 Jun 2011
Posts: 251
Location: Leafy Shires of the Midlands
PostPosted: Fri May 25, 12 8:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Yes a good set on the cherries. But for the first time, that I have seen we have black cherry aphids.

https://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=488

tahir



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45389
Location: Essex
PostPosted: Sun May 27, 12 8:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

None here so far.

Marches



Joined: 13 Dec 2011
Posts: 171
Location: Nr Peak District, England
PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 12 6:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

My cherry tree ("Morello") has only two cherries on. It was a maiden last year and we had a rough start to the year too.
I'll do some hand pollination next year just to be sure.

tahir



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45389
Location: Essex
PostPosted: Thu Jul 25, 13 6:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Thoughts so far:

Worse than pointless unless you net

Bacterial canker and blossom wilt are significant issues here, commercial crops really need to be sprayed (we don't)

Trees even on G5 are very vigorous, you need to prune

Varieties are very variable season to season, last year in a poor season we had more Merton Glory than we have had this year, flavour seems to be season dependent too, Yellow Spanish was terrible in 2011 but very tasty this year (much sunnier)

Harvest period is affected hugely by season; we started picking 3 weeks later this year than 2011 and would still be picking in a couple of weeks time if it hadn't rained (most of the remaining crop will have split by now)

Older softer cherry varieties are more split resistant but don't keep as well, not as big either

Nursery descriptions are rubbish; Noir de Guben is NOT a big cherry, Vega will NOT avoid the birds as it needs to be bright red to be tasty

Most reliable so far:

Kordia - A delicious large black cherry
Summer Sun - Excellent dark red cherry, prone to splitting at the first sign of rain though
Stella - Needs to be REALLY dark to be very tasty
Noir de Guben - Small but very tasty, more split resistant than modern varieties

Mistress Rose



Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15539

PostPosted: Fri Jul 26, 13 6:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Looking back on your first post on this thread, it sounds as if you have plastic net at ground level. You won't stop badger with anything, but we have found rabbit mesh at ground level protects plastic net very well.

Glad to hear you have a good crop.

tahir



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45389
Location: Essex
PostPosted: Fri Jul 26, 13 7:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Yup it's plastic all the way, we've had to put electric round the bottom to keep deer an rabbits out. Would rabbit net the bottom if we did it again

mochyn



Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales
PostPosted: Fri Jul 26, 13 8:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

tahir wrote:
Yup it's plastic all the way, we've had to put electric round the bottom to keep deer an rabbits out. Would rabbit net the bottom if we did it again


I won't be at your house that weekend.

tahir



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45389
Location: Essex
PostPosted: Fri Jul 26, 13 9:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

mochyn wrote:
tahir wrote:
Yup it's plastic all the way, we've had to put electric round the bottom to keep deer an rabbits out. Would rabbit net the bottom if we did it again


I won't be at your house that weekend.



It was fun!!!!

mochyn



Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales
PostPosted: Fri Jul 26, 13 9:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

OK, yes, it was fun, but...

tahir



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45389
Location: Essex
PostPosted: Tue Jul 30, 13 5:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Right, haven't had much chance to harvest more (dad died last week) BUT went up there yesterday and very little splitting. This is down to my lack of pruning last year, very little rain made it's way onto the cherry surface AND the wife's knack of breaking mowers, the grass is waist high so it's been catching the water and then drying out before too much of it makes it to the roots.

Bad management works!

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