SWEETAND SOUR CHERRIES

Varieties

with all sweet cherries, making them excellent pollinators

for all other sweet cherry varieties.

Sour Cherries

Montmorencyis the recommended variety for New
Jersey. Various nurseries offer productive spur bearing
Montmorency types. Meteoris a heavy-producing dwarf
cherry that ripens later than Montmorency. No other sour
cherry varieties are recommended for New Jersey.

Virus-Free Trees

Most nurseries sell certified, virus-free cherry trees.

These trees are indexed for known harmful viruses.

Certified, virus-free trees are recommended

because they are more vigorous, productive,

and healthy.
Contact your local county agent for additional
information on cherry varieties.

Sweet Cherries

All sweet cherry varieties have major weaknesses, the
major reason for the lack of commercial cherry production
in New Jersey. All the following cherry varieties have
been observed in New Jersey and other eastern states.
These varieties are all susceptible to brown rot and
recommended for small commercial plantings or
commercial test plantings.

Red or Black-Skinned Varieties.

Hedelfingenis the best variety for New Jersey because

it resists skin cracking. The fruit size and dessert quality is

good. Ulster, Van, and Venus, in order of ripening, are

all excellent quality varieties with large fruit that crack at

maturity in rainy weather. Sam, ripening with Ulster,

tolerates skin cracking better but is not as productive and

has average dessert quality. Stellaand Compact Stella

have medium-sized fruit but crop heavily because they are

self-fruitful and set fruit under adverse pollination

conditions. Compact Stella is a semi-dwarf tree on

Mahaleband Mazzardseedling stocks. Both varieties

will crack. Angelaand Vogueare two relatively new

varieties with excellent dessert quality and crack resistance.

Black Tartarian, Schmidt, and Windsor are widely

planted in New Jersey but have major weaknesses. Black

Tartarian has only fair dessert quality, and Windsor has

only medium-sized fruit. Both varieties are productive, and

the trees are long-lived. Schmidt is large fruited with

excellent quality but is unproductive.

Yellow-Skinned Varieties with Red-Blushed

Over-color. Napoleon (Royal Anne) and Emperor

Francisare grown in New Jersey, but both varieties have

a slightly acid level and are susceptible to skin cracking.

Rainieris a new variety that tolerates skin cracking, is

larger, and has better dessert quality.

Yellow-Skinned Varieties. Yellow Spanish

and Goldhave small fruit and only fair dessert quality.

Both varieties are very productive and cross-compatible

Rootstocks

Cherry Rootstocks

All commercial tree fruit nurseries offer cherry trees on
seedlings of Prunus mahaleb or Prunus avium variety
Mazzard. Both rootstocks have been grown and observed
in New Jersey orchards. Seedlings are grown from seed
collected from self-pollinated trees in virus-indexed
orchard blocks. Prunus mahaleb seedlings are very
susceptibleto Phytophthora root rot and should only be
planted on well drained soils where cultural practices will
be utilized to control the disease, specifically raised beds.
Since Phytophthora has become a major problem in many
NJ orchards, mahaleb is not recommended for NJ soils.
Seedlings of Prunus mahaleb budded with most
sweet and sour cherry varieties, produce a slightly smaller
tree than those varieties on Mazzard seedling rootstocks.
Trees on Prunus mahaleb seedlings bear earlier than
Mazzard seedlings. Though no cherry seedling rootstock
does well on heavy, poorly-drained soil, Mazzard will
tolerate heavy soil better than MahalebPrunus mahaleb
 seedlings are incompatible with some sweet cherry
varieties, such as Van, and are moderately susceptible to

1998 New Jersey Commercial Tree Fruit Production Guide

61