Hello, We had an extremely late, then wet spring. Our Evans cherry tree did not bloom. Is this normal? Thank you, Angela
Howdy Angela, Where about in Alberta do you live? Evans is not entirely hardy across Alberta. Peace Thean
Hi Thean, Thank you for responding. I live in Southern Alberta. We're going on the 3rd summer with the tree. It flowered and produced cherries the first 2 summers, but not this year. This year it produced many more new branches and leaves than the previous years.
Howdy Angela, I'm not trying to be nosiy but which part of southern Alberta are you in? Are you within the Chinook zone? If I'm not mistaken, this has been an anusual spring in southern part of the province. The floral buds could have been killed or you could have a heavy production last year at the expanse of floral initiation for this year's crop. I highly recommend that you try one or two of the University of Saskatchewan's varieites. They are far superior to Evans, in my humble opinion. Peace Thean
Hi, Thean: Perhaps while you're holding for Angela, I can butt in? Here in St-Albert (Alberta), my healthy Evans never had more than two-or three blooms at a time over a long (three weeks?) bloom. But "pre-bloom" I had a bumber crop of fat flower buds. My crop was - before that (expletive deleted) bird came- three cherries! Same with plums. And red currants. And Dolgo crab has set only 1/3 normal. Neighbours report the same. We had a frost on May 9th (-5.6C) and more severe frost in April. This Eastern European study suggests that frost vulnerability rises approaching bloom: http://www.agroinform.com/files/aktualis/pdf_agroinform_20080703131414_9_Pedryc.pdf I'm wondering if that May frost was severe enough to cause my failure. I think we had a much worse frost in April; but if that was the cause, then why did the buds continue to develop into May (as they surely did)? The Evans leafed-out normally; however, new branch growth started at least a month later than usual. Finally, on U. Sask. cherries: I planted two each of Cupid and Crimson Passion (close to my Evans) in April 2007, which grew OK last year. However, only one Cupid survived the winter. It pushed a couple of new branches out of the stem: very late, and within a foot of the soil level. But ... good news for bearss: we have a great crop of raspberries :-D . dino
Howdy Dino, I have a friend growing fruits somewhere between Brooks and Duchess. He has the same problem as you and Angela. Yes, the spring frosts are having effects on our fruit trees. The fact that your Evans and Cupid is leafing out later than normal likely indicate there is injury to the sap wood. I do not think the April frost is the culprit unless the trees have started to move. Having said that, it is likely this year as we have a very warm March and early April. Floral buds can take pretty low temperature and continue to grow but their ovaries, pistils and filaments are frozen by the frost in May. I have seen these parts frozen in temperature as warm as minus 2C. Please come to the Fruit Show at the Devonian Botanic Garden on the 13 and 14. You can get more views from other growers, including Dr. Evans himself. If you are coming on the 13th, please bring along some food and join in the pot luck lunch. The food is usually yummy and can give the best buffet restaurant a run for her money. Peace Thean
"Please come to the Fruit Show at the Devonian Botanic Garden on the 13 and 14" (September). Thanks for the heads-up, Thean. That looks promising. I'm also curious to learn how Albertan on-farm fruit wine production is progressing ... so I'll try hard to attend. dino
Howdy Dino, At the moment, there are two commercial fruit wineries in Alberta; one in Three Hills and the other in Strathmore. Unfortunately the one in Grand Prairie was shut down years ago. You will meet some of those who do home brew for their own consumption at the show. Peace Thean
Hi, Angelwing, I live in Lethbridge, Alberta, We have an Evens Cherry tree , plus the 5 improved cherry trees from U of S.. The Evens Cherry has produced very heavy crops of cherrys for the last 3 years, this past spring we had a very cold snap that lasted close to a week, at the time the cold snap started the flower buds where getting ready to open . We do not have a Cherry on any of the 6 cherry trees, My 2 Macintosh apple trees where set back by this cold snap as well, for the last 15 years i have had heavy crops of apples, this year we have very few. My grapes also suffered from that cold wheather, i have about 1/2 the crop of grapes that i normaly have, I think it was a very bad spring. Hope for a better year in 2009.
