It's many bowls of them! Picked my first crop of cherries today, much to the frustration of our resident Mocking birds. They were actually scolding me the day I put row covers over many of the cherry tree branches in hopes of keeping half the crop for my own consumption. The tree still has the row covers over the Stella and Bing cherries until they turn a deep red, but the Royal Ann were ready and waiting for me.
Because of space constraints, I decided upon a 3-in-1 cherry tree for the garden, so I could be certain that cross pollination would produce fruit. It may have taken 4-5 years to actually get a crop, but it was worth the wait. During the first year the tree produced one cherry; luckily the Mocking birds had not yet taken up residence. I was the grand prize winner that year. In year two it produced only 2 cherries; I was fearful that a crop would not be possible at that rate of maturation, or would come after my demise from old age. Year three there was a smattering of cherries, and year 4 showed more improvement. Last year was a banner year and this year is the same. The tree has finally come into its own and with some better husbandry from me, next year I'll be making pies and cobblers from the windfall of fruit.
No comments:
Post a Comment