Characteristics
Here are the main characteristics of the Regina cherry variety.
Drought resistance, winter hardiness
Cherry is not a drought-resistant crop. To get a good harvest, the tree needs to be watered at least once a month. In dry weather, make sure that the soil at the roots does not dry out.
Regina tolerates winter quite well if it is not grown in the northern regions. Young seedlings need to be spudded and tied with burlap or other rodent-proof material.
Pollination, flowering period and ripening time
The plant is not self-pollinating, and it is not always possible to choose a late-flowering variety. Pollinators for Regina cherries are the Karina and Salvia cherries; you can use Lotivka and Coral cherries. They are planted closer to the tree to be pollinated. The Regina variety blooms in May, the fruits reach maturity by mid-July.
Productivity, fruiting
The tree is strewn with berries every year. Not all of them can ripen, but up to 40 kg of fruit can be collected from an adult tree. It begins to bear fruit three years after planting.
Regina cherry fruits are stored on the tree in ripe form for 10-12 days. They don't crack from rain.
Attention! The only danger for the berries is that birds love them very much. If harvested untimely, they can deprive the gardener of the harvest.
Area of application of berries
The juicy sweet berry is used fresh. Various products are made from it. In addition to desserts, wines and liqueurs are good. For winter use, the berries are frozen. Cherry fruits are well transported and quickly sorted by buyers.
Resistance to diseases and pests
A specially bred variety is resistant to many diseases of cherries. In cold and wet weather, various putrefactive formations may appear on the fruits.
Advantages and disadvantages
The advantages of Regina cherries include the following qualities:
- High annual yield.
- Good preservation of berries during storage and transportation.
- Dense berries do not crack or rot from moisture.
- The berries come off easily when picked.
- Good resistance to diseases and harmful insects.
- Ripe fruits fall off within two weeks.
The only drawback is that a pollinator is required to produce ovaries. This is difficult to do for a late-blooming variety.
Harvest and storage
At the end of July, it's time to harvest Regina cherries. There is no need to remove juicy berries right away. Even ripe fruits can stay firmly on the branches for 2 weeks, while the taste does not suffer at all. In addition, Regina is not afraid of wet weather; her berries do not crack. Thanks to these qualities, you will have enough time to enjoy the unforgettable taste of cherries, picked straight from the branch. And there are much more benefits in fresh berries than in processed ones.
Start harvesting gradually. Berries located in the sunniest place will ripen earlier. The detachment from the fruit is dry, and this makes picking very easy. For long-term storage or transportation, it is best to remove the stem from the berries. To avoid accidentally damaging bouquet branches, use scissors. Place the harvested and sorted crops in shallow boxes.
You need to harvest cherries in small boxes.
Due to the dense structure of the pulp, the berries are stored for quite a long time. In the refrigerator, Regina's fruits remain fresh and tasty for more than 2 weeks. Cherries can be frozen. To do this, wash and dry the berries well, and then put them in small bags. Once thawed, a product cannot be re-frozen. Housewives probably have several recipes in stock to surprise their family in winter with aromatic jam or cherry jam, or a rich, delicious compote.
Regina cherries are especially good fresh
Landing Features
The large-fruited Regina cherry has its own characteristics when planting.
Recommended timing
Seedlings can be planted in spring or autumn. Spring planting gives the plant a better chance of establishing itself in the fall. It is carried out a few days after the soil has thawed. The seedling is at rest and does not receive stress during transplantation.
Autumn planting is good because there is a large selection of seedlings on the market. You can visually determine their condition. In the fall, planting holes are carefully prepared, fertilized and watered well. It is necessary to cover young plantings on the eve of frost.
Choosing a suitable location
For planting, a bright place located in high areas is required. There should be no drafts or north winds here. Low places where cold fog collects are not suitable for cherries. It is important that the area is not swampy and does not have a close layer of groundwater.
What crops can and cannot be planted next to cherries?
Pome trees should not be planted near cherries. She especially does not tolerate being next to an apple tree. Pears do not have a negative effect on cherries, but the larger root system will take away nutrients.
For the same reason, large trees such as linden, birch, and conifers are not planted next to it. Among garden crops, cherries cannot tolerate nightshade crops, tobacco, eggplants, and peppers. Gooseberries and raspberries are bad neighbors.
Cherry, honeysuckle, and plum will be good neighbors.
Selection and preparation of planting material
For planting, seedlings obtained by grafting a variety onto a rootstock are selected. The vaccination site should be visually visible. The cherry seedling must be healthy in appearance, have developed roots without damage. The height of the plant should not be less than a meter.
Important! Cherries grown from seeds do not bear varietal characteristics, and the same can be said about root suckers.
Before planting, seedlings are placed in a root former solution. Leave for several hours so that the roots are saturated with water.
Landing algorithm
Growing Regina cherries begins with planting them. Prepare a hole 60 cm deep and the same width. In its center, a mound of fertile soil mixed with complex fertilizer (no more than 100 g per plant) is poured. A peg is driven into the hole, which will serve as a support for the young cherry tree. A seedling is placed on a mound and the roots are straightened.
Next, water and cover the roots with soil. The grafting site should remain level with the soil. There is no need to fill it with soil. The soil is lightly compacted, eliminating the formation of air cavities. Next, the tree trunk circle is mulched with peat or humus.
The distance between plants is maintained at least 3 meters. If several rows are planted, then an interval of 4-5 meters is made between them.
Advantages and disadvantages
The new beauty was distinguished not only by the exceptional properties of the tree, but also by its excellent honey-sweet taste with a slight sourness. For these reasons, the young variety is rapidly gaining the attention of gardeners and for good reason, because it has a lot of advantages:
- big harvest - every year “Regina” bears fruit abundantly;
- maintaining the attractive appearance of berries even during long-term transportation. At the same time, they do not lose quality when stored in a refrigerator for two weeks;
- the fruits are very dense - they do not crack and do not rot during heavy rainfall;
- ease of picking fruits - no effort required to separate the berries from the stalk;
- ripe fruits do not fall off for a long time (more than two weeks), which allows you to plan the time of collection;
- “Regina” is minimally susceptible to all kinds of diseases and pests;
“Regina” has a lot of advantages, but it has a significant drawback - the variety is characterized by poor self-pollination, therefore, pollinating friends should be planted close to the tree. The whole difficulty is that not many varieties bloom at this time. The best cross-pollinators: Karina, Silvia, Hedelfinska, Nefris, Lotivka cherries, and Coral. They should not be planted at a great distance from “Regina” or a suitable variety should be grafted onto the tree, the main thing is that they bloom at the same time.
Attention! Excellent yield in the first year of fruiting will be ensured by regularly shortening the shoots by 2 or 3 roots.
Subsequent care of the crop
Basic care for Regina cherries includes watering, fertilizing, and pruning. The tree requires abundant watering at least once a month. A young plant needs 30 liters, and an adult fruit-bearing tree will require 50-60 liters. In dry times, water more often; how many times is determined depending on the condition of the soil, preventing it from drying out.
A year after planting, the cherry tree will need nitrogen fertilizer to develop the stem mass. 100 g of urea per 1 m2 is enough. Subsequently, complex mineral compounds, compost or rotted manure are added. Add ash, because cherries and cherries do not tolerate acidic soil. You can add dolomite flour around the perimeter in the fall.
Formative pruning of cherries is carried out. It must have one main escape. Competitors are being eliminated. If the top of the tree is damaged, another strong shoot is allowed to grow.
Every spring, sanitary pruning of the cherry tree crown is done. Remove broken, diseased shoots directed inward. The cut areas are treated with copper sulfate and covered with garden pitch.
Young cherry seedlings need winter shelter. Two weeks before frost, mulch from various materials is poured around them. The tree is wrapped in burlap and spruce branches and secured with twine. This will protect them from the cold and rodents.
A good example of how to care for cherries is this video tutorial:
Diseases and pests, methods of control and prevention
| Cherry diseases | Characteristic | Control measures |
| Moniliosis | The berries rot, the flowers fall off and do not form an ovary. Gray growths in which fungal spores ripen are noticeable on the fruits. If you don't fight, the whole tree will die | Treatment with Bordeaux mixture in spring and autumn, use of antibiotics. The soil also needs to be cultivated |
| Coccomycosis | Occurs at high air humidity. Brown-red spots are noticeable on the leaves, eventually covering the entire surface of the leaf. The leaves fall, the fruits do not ripen and crumble | Collecting and burning diseased branches. Treatment of the bush with a 3% Nitrofen solution |
| Cherry pests | Characteristic | Control measures |
| Cherry sawfly | A small black insect with yellow stripes. They give birth to caterpillars that eat leaves and buds. When they multiply strongly, the tree may remain completely bare | For destruction use: “Aktellik”, “Karbofos”, “Metafos”, “Phosfamide” |
Typical diseases and pests
Regina is famous for its high resistance to fungal diseases, but can suffer from viral infections.
Table: diseases and pests of cherries, prevention and control measures
| Diseases and pests | Symptoms | Prevention | Control measures |
| Moniliosis | The infection enters through the pistils of the flower, quickly spreading throughout the tree. The onset of the disease can be seen by fading inflorescences and ovaries. Further, the disease leads to drying out of the branches, falling leaves, and rotting of the fruits. |
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| Gommosis (gum discharge) | Trees that have mechanical damage or frost damage are affected. A sticky substance emerges from the wounds, which, having hardened, becomes like a glassy growth. If gommosis is not treated, it can cause the branches to dry out. |
| Using a sharp knife, scrape off the hardened resin to healthy tissue. Treat the wound with 1% copper sulfate, and then cover it with garden varnish. |
| Mosaic cherry disease | Ring circles or stripes appear on the leaves, the color of which is changed. The leaf plate becomes deformed and falls off. Due to impaired photosynthesis, the cherry weakens. If the disease is started, it blocks the flow of sap in the trunk. |
| Unfortunately, there are no treatments. Uproot the diseased plant and burn it. |
| Gypsy moth | The butterfly lays eggs on thick skeletal branches. The caterpillars that develop from them actively eat the leaves. If neglected, the tree may dry out. |
| Use Actellik or Inta-Vir in early spring and during the period when caterpillars appear. Prepare the solution according to the instructions. |
| Black aphid | Numerous small pests gather on the tops of young shoots or on the undersides of leaves. By feeding on the sap of the plant, they greatly weaken it. They leave behind a sticky coating on the leaves and fruits. |
| If the aphids have spread too much and folk remedies do not help, try Commander, Actellik or Inta-Vir. |
| Cherry pipe maker | Both adults and larvae are dangerous. The beetles damage the buds by eating the stamens, pistil and leaves. This leads to deformation and death of the fruit. The larvae eat the fruit seed from the inside. |
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Photo gallery: diseases and pests of cherries
Moniliosis leads to drying out of branches
Hommosis appears as a result of mechanical damage or frost wounds
It is impossible to cure a tree from mosaic; it will have to be destroyed
Aphids weaken cherries, making them vulnerable to viruses
Harm to the crop is caused by the cherry tubeweed itself and its larvae.
Gypsy moth caterpillars eat a significant part of the green mass
How to choose a cherry variety
The task is difficult for a beginner. You can’t do it without consulting an experienced gardener. Our team consulted with some of them and determined the main criteria for selecting seedlings.
Ripening period
There was a time when gardeners literally could not get enough of the only tree in the garden that produced a meager harvest within one week for the entire year. And it had to be collected before the blackbirds did.
Today, with a competent approach to garden planning, you can enjoy this delicious berry from the end of May to the end of September. There is no point in choosing only early, late or mid-season seedlings. You need to grow at least three varieties of different ripening periods. You should determine the best pollinators for your crops, clarify their characteristics and select the best options so that cherries in your garden do not disappear throughout the season.
Climate
Choose zoned material from trusted nurseries. This is the most win-win option. There have been cases when enterprising swindlers from one of the southern republics of the former USSR, under the guise of cherries, sold aspen to gardeners in a neighboring state, and made a lot of money from it. To be sure that the tree will take root, you need to select seedlings at the age of one or two years. It should be remembered that the best time to plant all stone fruits is spring.
Taste qualities
You can talk for a long time about the strengths and weaknesses of seedlings, productivity and other criteria. But we make the final decision after we try several cherries and compare their taste.
The taste of the fruit is determined by the degree of its ripeness, sugar content, acidity, and aromatic substances. Tasters distinguish the following options:
- Sweet. You can't hear the acid.
- Sourish-sweet. The sweetness predominates, but there is some acidity.
- Sweet and sour. There is a lot of acid, but more sugar.
- Sweet and sour. There are more acids than sugars.
- Sweetish-sour. Lots of acid, but you can still taste the sugar.
- Sour. You can't hear sugar at all.
The fruits of some varieties have a wine-sweet taste. Similar sensations arise when tasting semi-sweet dessert wines. The presence of shades is assessed: astringency, bitterness, etc. The aftertaste makes it possible to evaluate the presence and strength of aromas: strong, weak, nutmeg, strawberry, tea rose aromas, etc. Impressions of the structure of the pulp are taken into account.
It can be very tender, this type is called “Gin”, or dense, gristly – “Bigarro”. In highly juicy berries, the juice flows well, while in weakly juicy berries, it is difficult to flow. Fruits of medium juiciness occupy an intermediate position between them. The listed taste assessment criteria are used by professional breeders. However, they can be successfully used by a novice gardener.
Pest resistance
The most common pests for bird cherries are cherry flies and aphids. Cherry fly larvae overwinter in the ground under trees, at a depth of 5 cm. They emerge from the ground during the flowering period of acacia - from mid-May. From this moment until the beginning of June, the winged robber lays eggs in the pulp of the fruit. By the time it ripens, the developing worms feed on the juice of the berries, leaving ugly traces of their vital activity inside them.
The easiest way to combat it is to plant exclusively early cherries. In this case, the pest simply will not have time to lay eggs, or the worms will not have time to enter the stage of maturity at which visible damage will be caused to the crop.
Mid-ripening and late varieties lose up to 60% of the yield from the activity of the cherry fly. Experienced gardeners mulch tree trunk circles with a thick layer of mowed green manure and cover the mulch with geotextiles that allow air and moisture to pass through. These and similar measures prevent the cherry fly from emerging from the ground and save stone fruit crops from this pest.
Aphids can only be combated by timely spraying of trees with preparations that destroy insects.
In addition to insects, fungal diseases cause serious damage to stone fruit crops: coccomycosis, clasterosporiasis, moniliosis and gray rot. Before purchasing seedlings, you should find as much information as possible about them in reference books, the Internet, and ask the advice of experienced gardeners.
Most hybrids resist fungal diseases, but not all of them. Iput, for example, is not afraid of coccomycosis and gray rot, which cannot be said about the Valery Chkalov variety of cherries.
Protection of horticultural crops requires an integrated approach. It is necessary to thin out the crowns of trees and shrubs, preventing them from thickening, which contributes to the spread of infections. Diseased branches and plants must be removed and destroyed; trees, bushes and herbaceous plants must be treated in a timely manner with special means.
Which variety of cherries is better?
Wanting to make the choice easier for inexperienced gardeners, the VyborExperta team selected the four best from the fifteen crops collected in the review, taking into account their performance characteristics and assessments of the taste of the fruit.
- Ovstuzhenka: ripens early, tolerates cold and drought well, resists fungal diseases, the berries are juicy and sweet.
- Ox heart: large-fruited, medium ripening, with good winter hardiness, immunity to disease, high and stable yield. Excellent dessert.
- Tyutchevka: late ripening, cold-resistant, high-yielding, not afraid of most fungal diseases, easily transported over long distances.
- Sabrina: Canadian columnar, compact, self-pollinating, can withstand frosts down to minus 32°C, is not afraid of fungal diseases, large-fruited, the berries are tasty, sweet and juicy, the yields are stable.
The editors of the VyborExperta.kg website have done a great job of selecting worthy nominees for the TOP 15 best cherry varieties. We hope that this material will help novice gardeners in choosing seedlings and growing this tasty and healthy berry.
Description of culture
Cordia cherries are more suitable for the southern regions of the country. In the middle climate zone, it is most often grown in the Central and North-Western regions. The young tree is carefully looked after in winter. The seedling is vigorous: within a year it reaches 1.7 m. Mature cherries during the fruiting period slow down the growth of wood. The root system is powerful and shallow. The crown is spreading, spherical or cone-shaped.
The leaves are large, ovate, with a sharp tip, quite dense: they hide some of the fruits. The berry petioles are strong, 45 mm long.
The heart-shaped berries of the Cordia variety are large, 28 mm wide, weighing 8–10 g. The thick skin is dark red, almost black, with brown dots. The pulp is intense dark red, juicy, dense, fleshy. The stone is large and easily separated from the pulp. The taste is pleasant, sweet, with a characteristic cherry aroma. The Kordia cherry fruits were rated by tasters at 4.8 points.
Advice! Cordia cherry will produce the best harvest if it is grafted onto medium-sized and short-growing seedlings.
