Have you heard of the Royal Crimson Cherry?
So excited about this tree! Released by Zaiger's Genetics and Dave Wilson Nursey for the 2016 season, this is only the second year this tree has been made available to the general public! So what makes this Cherry tree so special you ask?
- Super low chill requirements (for us in SoCal - that's huge) at 150-300 needed chill hours, this cherry tree has one of the lowest chill time of any cherry out there!
- Needs no additional pollinator. Prior to the release of this tree, those of us in warmer climates needed both the Mini Royal and the Royal Lee (both low chill req.)in our orchard to get cherries, no more the Royal Crimson needs no additional pollinators!
- It can serve as a pollinator to either the Mini Royal or Royal Lee - so if you have either of those varieties and one or the other didn't take, you can plant this one and get cherries from both!
Its been grafted on to Mazzard Root stock meaning it will get pretty big - w/o pruning, up to 40 feet tall. Talking to a fellow member of the California Rare Fruit Growers, I've been told this year was the first year they put these on Maxima14 a drawing root stock but thus far I've only found the Royal Crimson on the Mazzard. I'm placing it in a location in my yard where I want it to provide shade and privacy so the height is not a problem for me!
Can not wait for this thing to take off and start producing!