The 'Łutówka' variety is very popular and appreciated for its good fruit, the taste of which we usually get after opening the jar, i.e. after processing.The long-known cherry is very fertile and willingly grown both in home gardens and allotments, as well as on larger areas of commercial plantations.
In her triumphant march, she displaced many other traditional varieties of cherries. And yet some of them also bear extremely tasty fruits and are much more resistant to attacks of fungal diseases, e.g. very dangerous moniliosis, i.e. brown rot of stone trees.
Due to the fruit, all varieties can be divided into two groups. One has cherries that bear bright red skin, light yellow flesh and light non-staining juice.Fruits of the second group have dark red skin, flesh and colored juice.It is best to wear rubber gloves and a protective apron when pitting them.
An old variety of cherries, today only a regional delicacy, is 'Minister von Podbielski' with fruit with a slight taste of bitter almonds. The best cherries contain the same amount of sugar as cherries. And as you'd expect from summer fruits, they have a similar amount of refreshing fruit acids.
The harvest of cherries from large commercial orchards is almost exclusively processed into juices, compotes, jams and preserves, and also frozen.Fresh fruit is very rarely found at fruit and vegetable stands, more often at the market or street stalls. This applies not only to old varieties that ripen early, but also to new ones that bear fruit with a mild taste.
Cherry care
Like their sweet cherries, cherries like strong sunlight, but are much easier to care for.As the trees have a bushy habit or a crown of no more than 5 m, there will be a place for cherries in almost every garden.Most varieties are self-pollinating, so a single tree that will bear fruit is enough. However, if there is room for the second one, it is worth planting another variety that will allow you to extend the period of harvesting delicious fruits.
The ripening time of the fruit depends on the variety. Even the early ones, such as 'Königin Hortense' and 'Favorit', ripen only four weeks after the first cherries. The peak of the cherry season is in July. The fruits of the latest variety 'Schöne von Chatenay' shine bright red on the tree even in mid-August.
Cherry varieties differ in the sugar content of the fruit. In one tree, ripe fruit are sweetest, the stalks of which can be easily torn off the twigs. Cherries are best picked in the cool morning hours. We keep them in a refrigerator or in a cool cellar until they are used. The content of sugar and aromatics decreases very slowly at low temperatures.
Unlike cherries, ripe cherries can be easily torn off the stalks.Such fruits will lose some juice and should be used as soon as possible so that the losses are not greater.
The most common cherry diseases
Rubber spills can occur when the soil is too moist, in areas of greater damage to woody tissues, or when the shoots are cut too hard.They are in the form of an amber liquid, thick as resin.Infected branches stop growing or die off Preventively, choose optimal positions for trees, perform professional cuts and as early as possible fight diseases and aphids.
Drying out of the tops of shoots is one of the symptoms of moniliosis, a disease caused by the fungus - Monilia laxa.Rainy weather during flowering favors infection. Dead shoots should be cut down to he althy parts.In unfavorable weather, during flowering, fungi can be sprayed several times with horseradish infusion.Resistant varieties are 'Köröser Weichsel', 'Morina' and 'Achat'.
Tasty varieties
- 'Łutówka' is the most popular common cherry. It bears fruit quite late, more or less at the turn of July and August. Bears fruit 3-4 years after planting, sometimes earlier.
- 'Jade' matures at the end of June. Harvesting the fruit takes quite a long time. Cherries contain a lot of sugar, but their sweetness does not obscure the refreshing sourness of the flesh.
- 'Achat' - similarly to cherries - also bears fruit on older shoots. The balanced content of sugar and acid means that the fruit can be processed in many different ways. They taste best when eaten immediately after picking from the tree.
Cutting depends on variety
Cherry pruning is best done in the summer after the fruit is harvested. The form of growth of the variety is important. 'Gerema', 'Morellenfeuer' and 'Schattenmorelle' ('Łutówka') bear fruit on one-year-old shoots 20-40 cm long. Perennial shoots form fruiting shoots with 2-3 flower buds only at the tops.To prevent the lower parts of the branch from being stripped, shorten any dangling rod-shaped shoots with the younger branching that points outwards and upwards.
Other varieties of cherries, incl. 'Köröser Weichsel', 'Carnelian', 'Morina' and 'Safir' have shoots straight up, without the tendency to "bald" their lower parts. These varieties bear fruit both on long annual shoots and on older shoots.Additionally, they create, like cherries, the so-called bouquet shoots with many flower buds.Do not prune these cherries too much. We remove older than three-year shoots before the younger two-year shoot.
