As you may be able to see from this photo, most of the cherry flowers on my little trees did not get pollenated this year. It seems that somewhere between 10 and 20% of the blossoms have turned into green fruit. The rest of the flowers did not produce anything beyond the pretty white show they put on. The forecast calls for a 29 degree low overnight, so I’ll cover these (again) as a precaution.
Posted by Jonathan on April 18, 2012 at 8:11 am
Ours did the exact same thing. I suspect it’s because they opened so early, not enough insects and bees were out to pollinate them. :(
Posted by Jimmy Cracked-Corn on April 23, 2012 at 6:24 pm
Yes, that seems to be the case…there just were not enough bees born yet that early in the “spring.”
Posted by chickndaddy on May 4, 2012 at 4:32 pm
Mine were very limited as well (in Kentucky). I expected a bumper crop … thousands of blooms. But I, too, saw only about a 20% return. I’ve picked three quarts. Just finished pitting them, and wound up with one quart of cherries ready for jam. I hope to be able to glean another three quarts this weekend so I can get at least one more batch.
Posted by Jimmy Cracked-Corn on May 9, 2012 at 7:42 pm
Cherry jam would be quite a treat! This year I would have to decide between a small pie and a half-batch of jam, I think. But the trees are growing a bit every year.