Thank you Don for this!
Cupid does look good, a bit smaller.
Was the Cupid loaded as Evans?
Now, if you still have some hanging on, can you please see how the Cupid turns out when left on, lets say another two weeks or so like I do with Evans, actually, Evans can hang on till freeze up, ...will Cupid stay on or fall off? I bought a little one this spring, ...then grafted a scion to a pin cherry, it was already leafed out,...luckily it took.

The Cupid was only planted in 2011 and the Evans in 2010 so I can't really say much about how heavily they produce or how long the fruit will stay on the bushes. I picked everything off both plants.

konrad, I picked most of what was left on my Cupid just yesterday, so not quite two weeks after when don picked his but close enough. Some of the fruit was very sweet, some of it was still a little sour. Next year I think I'll leave most of the fruit until August 20 or so (I don't mind sour fruit so I won't be able to resist harvesting at least a few). I definitely prefer Cupid to Evans; all-in-all I'm very pleased with this shrub.

Thank you George,...just this weekend I had no Joice then to pick the Evans due to the heat and good moisture we had, which pushed the picking about 3 weeks ahead . The wasp are very very bad also and waste allot of them, some loss to birds.

Please guess what's going on between the left and right cherries.

Some of the trees are loaded!
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..

Can Cupid match this load?
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That tree certainly is loaded! In the first pic, the cherries on the right definitely look much "meatier" than the ones on the left... I'm guessing it is Evans grafted onto another variety?

A bird question: how much of a problem are birds for sour cherries? Do growers wrap their trees with bird-mesh? My Evans tree had a lot of bird damage (most likely from crows or magpies, which have invaded the neighbourhood) just as the fruit began to turn ripe. The tree is right next to a row of 7 saskatoon bushes and the birds (robins too) were already having a good feast on the saskatoons so the red cherries may have been too much to resist. I wrapped the tree with bird netting when I noticed the damage and that fixed the problem.

But my 2 year-old cherry bushes (Carmine Jewel, Cupid, Juliet and Romeo) are on the other side of the yard in the veggie garden, well away from the saskatoons. I became paranoid about bird damage so wrapped the Carmine Jewel and Cupid in bird netting as each had some fruit. The Juliet didn't have any fruit on it so wasn't wrapped, nor was the Romeo, which had only a single cherry to ripen. A few days later that single cherry on the Romeo was gone.

So I'm wondering what experience others have had with birds and sour cherries. It would be a bother to have to wrap the trees every year when the fruit began to ripen, but for the bush cherries it would be fairly straightforward, tougher (but still doable) for an Evans tree. Maybe my Evans is just attractive to birds because it is right next to the saskatoons? Last year I didn't wrap the Evans and the birds were no problem.

My Evans cherry is loaded with fruit this year and there hasn't been much bird damage. I've never had to cover my tree with netting ever...but then I don't really use the fruit for anything other than a pie or two anyway.

I find it's different from year to year, I've never seen birds on it this year but some damage confirmed that some got hit. Next to the cherries I have some Saskatoon wild in the bush and Cedar waxwing were in there allot.

You're right Don, both are Evans, on the right, they're grafted to pin cherry.

Interesting that grafting has such a pronounced effect, with the grafted Evans looking smaller and meatier than the original. How does the taste compare?

I see I missed one Cupid cherry during my harvest. Since seriousgeorge sampled his 6 days ago, maybe I'll leave my one remaining cherry on a bit longer to see how it lasts and what the flavour is like when I pick it (now 17 days after I picked all the others).

Definitely sweeter then Evans on it's own root.
You'll find any sour cherries will improve in brix when left on longer.

Do you know if the cherries left on the plant a long time are improving solely in sugar content, or does the acidity also become reduced, making them taste sweeter by default?

Brix is a mesurment in Sugar content, I have checked it out one year, when left on longer it will go up, [with most fruits] it will over power the acidity in taste, not reduced.

That is odd a pin cherry rootstock would change the characteristics of the cherry pit size so much. Really interesting stuff..

How successful were your bing type grafts this year Konrad? What varieties are you testing?

I haven't paid attention to pit size,...the Evans on pin root stock are less soggy, which makes them tastier. I'm thinking, this is because pin cherry is not as vigor as Evans, the cherries are slightly smaller but firmer.

Not sure what bing graft you refer to? All I've done new on sweet cherry this year, I bark grafted a Kristin to Evans. When my root cellar ever gets finished I'll try to grow some of them in pots and store them over winter in there.

One way to grow them outside is to train low branches along the ground and hope for snow cover, the low Stella branch on Evans did prove to me one year with lots of cherries.
My Stella on Evans has died because the whole Evans tree died, it was getting old, around 20 years...now I lost Stella!
This Evans tree never suckered over these years,..just now, I see one little guy coming up about 3 feet away.

Surprisingly, I've picked a couple of Vandalay and Skeena cherries off the trees about 4 feet up this year due to a mild last winter.

Ok, Konrad, I'm only asking this cause I saw your post about evan's suckering. I planted a U of S cherry, think it was a cupid, would have to check my records, It died the first winter, I have four suckers (maybe seedlings, it had a couple of fruit the first year) thinking suckers though. Do you know if they are on their own root or are they grafted to an evan's. Don't really care just would like to get cherries one year. They are also in a bad spot now and with the four together I think they should be moved, spring? They are about 18 inches. Thanks to anyone who can enlighten me. Cheryl

Bdgardener,

All U of S cherries are on their own roots. There are no exceptions.

Awesome, thanks, now I just need to keep them alive. C

Yes, transplant them in spring as soon you can dig.

BTW, a coupld days ago I ate that lone Cupid cherry that remained on the bush, which is 25 days after I picked all the others. Seemed to hold on the bush very well and hadn't deteriorated at all, nor fallen off. But as far as taste and texture go, I couldn't tell any difference compared to when I ate all the others 3.5 weeks ago -- no better, no worse. I'm obviously going from memory about how the other cherries tasted.