These trees are really waking up now, leaves coming out and forming small branches. The first one we look at is a Minnie Royal Cherry Tree. Its considered a low chill hour tree only needing a fraction of chill hours as the others I have on my property. It also flowers much earlier than the other Cherries. They are grown in Southern California and other southern areas, and its part of a different pollination group which means it needs a very specific Cherry cultivar to make fruit. So its hard to say if I will get fruit from this tree, but at least it should be an early flowering tree for the Bees to make use of it.
Its been in the ground for about four months now, and seems something has been nibbling on the leaves. The second tree we look at is a Lapins Cherry tree, it needs more of the standard amount of hours of chill time under 45F. Around 400-900 for this cultivar, the Minnie Royal only needs 200-300 chill hours below 45F to make fruit. As long as it gets pollinated.
The Lapins Cherry Trees produced flowers earlier this year but I do not think they got pollinated as it was only one tree that did that. They wilted away as I think the tree was in shock from just being planted.
The forth Cherry tree I own is a Black Tartarian cherry tree, it produces dark sweet cherries and should pollinate the Lapins and vice versa. Its shooting off some stems and hopefully will flower in a year or two.
Looking forward to when they produce flowers in mass, and to see how well it lines up with my Bees emerging in late February. Many trees do not produce flowers until April so having some trees around early on in the season like my Peach tree will give the Bees a source for nectar and pollen to build homes. And pretty sure the Two Lapins and the one Black Tartarian should produce fruit, may be a few years away but I think I can be patient and wait for them to be ready to flower and produce fruit.
LBRY Video Link