Canadian Cherry Producers Inc.

CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF HORTICULTURE SCIENCE 50 years of breeding and selecting work resulted in the very first dwarf sour cherry introduction from the U of S:... 'SK Carmine Jewel' in 1999. Carmine Jewel was selected for its dwarf size (2 m), excellent hardiness and great-tasting dark red fruit. Here's the story of Rick Sawatzky's role in the development of SK Carmine Jewel: "The first sour cherries planted in the university’s experimental plots were from seeds from the Central Siberian Botanic Garden in Novosibirsk. These were just beginning to fruit when Rick began work as a technician in 1971. They had low productivity and lacked winter hardiness. Asked to discard them, Rick took two home which he tried (unsuccessfully) to cross with sweet cherries. His goal: to develop a hardy, large shrub with large, high quality fruit. Rick’s next crosses involved a collection of sour cherries, mainly from Europe, received from Les Kerr (who had worked on them for at least 20 years). All these were controlled crosses in the greenhouse with help from Rick’s kids on weekends. It was a great botany lesson for them, he says. Rick crossed the best of these, ‘Kerr’s Easy Pick,’ with ‘North Star’, a sour cherry tree introduced from Minnesota. The result was ‘SK Carmine Jewel'." (Excerpted from an article by Sara Williams) #100yearsofhorticulturescience #usask #agbio #gardening #gardeningatusask #dwarfsourcherries #carminejewel

Hello growers! I was out taking some photos today. We had a lot of dead and blind wood at the top our trees and an abundance of suckers that have grown up to 4 feet in one season. Are you seeing this too?

Are you wondering how to deal with winter kill in your cherries? Here’s a quick video. If you have more questions, you can reach Forrest Scharf, SK Provincial Fruit Specialist at 306-787-4666

Did you cherry bush suffer winter damage? Here is an explanation of blind wood vs winter damage. If you need further information, contact the SK Provincial Fruit Specialist, Forrest Scharf at 306-787-4666

What is everyone doing in their orchards this weekend? We were pruning at Wakaw.