Saskatchewan cherries are tart cherries, also known as pie cherries.  Commercial pie filling uses tart cherries, Prunus cerasus.  The fresh cherries we buy in the store are Prunus avium, or sweet cherries.  Technically, the Saskatchewan cherries are sweeter than Prunus avium, but contain more citric acid, resulting in a bold mix of sweet and tart.  

Dr. Bob Bors, plant breeder, at the U of S, intentionally selected dark fleshed cherries for health reasons.  Generally, it is accepted, the more colorful the fruit, the greater the anti-oxidant properties.  Processors of conventional canned cherry pie filling add colorants to make their product red.  The Saskatchewan cherries are naturally bright red.

Cherries contain melatonin, says researchers from the University of Texas.  They also found tart cherries contain anti-oxidants, having ten-times the anti-inflammatory properties of aspirin!  

Tart cherries help relieve arthritis pain, gout and even headaches, says scientists from Michigan State University.  A gentleman reported after drinking tart cherry juice for one-week that his arthritis pain dramatically disappeared.  You might say, tart is smart!  The American Cherry Marketing Institute, www.cherrymkt.org is a great site to discover more health benefits of cherries.  

The Romance series is bigger, better, redder and sweeter than the commercial tart cherries grown in Michigan.  These prairie cherries weigh between four and six grams and have a brilliant red color throughout the whole cherry.  The brix rating, can be as high as 22 which makes them as sweet as many grape varieties.   

"Which one should I plant?"“Plant all six,” says Arden Delidais, owner of DNA Gardens, who runs a tissue culture lab and specialty nursery on a farm east of Red Deer.  The tissue culture lab enables DNA Gardens to work closely with plant breeders to introduce new varieties such as these cherries.

By planting all six cherries, the harvest will be extended  from the end of July to mid September.  “Anything that expands our short growing season is a great thing!” says Delidais.  Each variety has about a three-week harvest period and will over lap the ripening of the next variety.  Yields of two to three ice-cream buckets per plant are possible.  People tend to pick the fruit too early when they first see bright red coloration.  The Romance Series gets sweeter and mellower while it waits to be picked, unlike some fruits that dry up or fall off the plant when ripe.    

If space is an issue and fresh eating is your main objective, you should plant Juliette, Crimson Passion and Cupid.  Cupid has the largest fruit and is the last to bloom and fruit.  It has a firm texture similar to a sweet cherry.  Crimson Passion is one of the smaller shrubs producing very sweet fruit, sometimes the size of a quarter!  “Juliette’s nickname was Sweetie, if that tells you something,” says Delidais.  

When planting, choose your sunniest site, at least four to five hours of full sun a day.  Tart cherries can be planted in hedge-rows four to five feet apart.  They require thorough watering during the first three years of establishment.  

“It is always good to mimic nature,” reminds Delidais.  Mother Nature is typically hot and dry in late summer and this helps plants terminate active growth and set buds in preparation for winter.  By reducing water in August and September, you encourage the establishment of winter buds and increase hardiness.  “You can kill anything with your water hose if you water too long into the fall.”  After letting the cherries dry down, you should wet the soil thoroughly just prior to freeze up, some time in October.

In about four-years, once the cherries are old enough to produce fruit, you will need to change your watering practice.  Watering fruiting cherry plants in the late summer helps to size the fruit.  

Pollination can be an issue with some fruits but these cherries are self-fertile, meaning if you plant one cherry, you will get fruit.  Yield is enhanced when more than one variety is planted.  Bees work well and gently brushing the blooms will also stimulate greater fruit set, says Delidais. 

These cherries are well behaved and do not sucker much.  Plant breeding used Mongolian cherry for hardiness, but this also brought suckering.  “Years of selection work deleted the nasty suckering habit and left the hardiness,” explains Delidais.

For locations where it is hard to grow plants, Delidais recommends Carmine Jewel.  This cherry was the first to be released in 1999 and it ripens earliest in the season.   Delidais refers to Carmine Jewel as “a little princess,” because it is a petite plant, growing only six-feet tall, with a neat, tidy habit of growth, glossy green leaves and crisp white blooms. “Carmine Jewel has the nicest ornamental characteristics.”  

The first Carmine Jewel cherry plants sold, are now bearing fruit and ecstatic customers are returning to buy more.  Cam McLeod of Shackleton, Saskatchewan can't plant Sk Carmine Jewel fast enough.  He says, "I can't say enough good about them!  They are fantastic little plants.  You might say I am plum pleased!"  Delidais, who has 30- years of  experience growing saskatoons  finds them very consistent and hardy.  Carmine Jewels are doing well in Fort Macleod, another tough growing climate.  “Carmine Jewel are shaping up to be the workhorse of the burgeoning cherry industry,” predicts Delidais.

These prairie hardy cherries are easier to grow than many other fruit trees.   They are good candidates for organic production and home-owners because most insects and diseases do not bother them.  For more tips on growing your cherries visit www.dnagardens.com.

Large acreages of cherries are being planted commercially in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.  Saskatchewan cherries are natural dwarfs, growing only six to eight feet tall making them easy to pick.  Our American neighbors are also excited to learn of these dwarf cherries, as the ones they grow are 18 to 25 feet tall.  DNA Gardens has seen interest from producers in New York, Minnesota, Idaho, Tennessee, Alaska and North Dakota.  

DNA Gardens is one of the original five propagators with a license to grow these plants.  Propagation is by license and royalty fees from each plant are collected on behalf of the University of Saskatchewan.  Growers are so pleased with the plant material and the extension work the university conducts, most feel the royalty fee is a good investment.