Are the cherries on my tree ripe?

[Rot 911]

You guys seem to know everything else. Anyways, this is the first year the birds haven't eaten all the cherries by now. They are a dark red color, but when I pick one and eat it, the cherry is still pretty sour. How do I know when they are ready to pick and eat?

[Moses]

Easy. When the cherries are ripe, the birds will eat them.

[RickM]

This is pretty funny.

This is the first year the birds haven't eaten the Rainier cherries off my tree as well. My daughter and I picked 5 pounds of the stuff on Sunday. They are tart and a yellow/blush red. I could have picked 50lbs more but I didn't want to kill myself trying. Now I know why they call a cherry picker what they do.

If you have Bing cherries then you have to wait till they're almost black in color but as mentioned then the birdies want them. They can also go bad (on the tree) within a day depending on temp and rainfall.

I took a gamble and picked them slightly before peak and store them in the fridge in zip locks. You can also freeze when ripe.

[Westy]

Originally posted by Kurt V
Re: Are the cherries on my tree ripe?

Oops, sorry. I thought this was a porn site.

[Rot 911]

Originally posted by Westy
Oops, sorry. I thought this was a porn site.

Can't believe it took four posts for my thread to go south.

[930addict]

Well I just happened to be eating some bing cherries as I read your post. According to what I've eaten so far, they're ripe when the color is a deep burgandy. If they have a redish look to them they will not be very sweet, in fact they will have a bitter taste to them. Hope that helps.

[Westy]

Hey Kurt, it could be worse. I planted a FRUITLESS cherry a couple of years ago, right near my cement pond. I get 15 to 20 yummy cherries every year,,,,so does the pond. I also get those disgusting worms similar to tomatoe worms that think the leaves are a delicacy.

[white87911]

depends on what kind of cherrie. They could be ripe and still taste sour if they are cherries designed for baking.

[juanbenae]

i like eating a cherries and then squeezing the pit between my fingers, it shoots them very far. even leaves a small juice stain on the poor sap you hit. its almost like flipping a beer bottle top with your fingers, except you enjoy the cherry THEN flip the seed, where as the beer cap can be flung PRIOR to enjoying your cold one.

funny how mother nature works eh?

[shortwavez]

this is so random that you're askin about cherries. i just went to this cherry farm on sunday and picked 36 lbs. im incredibly sick of them right about now

[911Rob]

Originally posted by Moses
Easy. When the cherries are ripe, the birds will eat them.

Oh, this is a funny thread!
Laughing Out Load on many of the posts
Thanks!

[Moneyguy1]

Leaf eating worms...YOu might check on this, but I have had success spraying AROUND the tree (not the tree) with Malathion. It gets absorbed into the tree and helps the tree to defend itself. Whether it would affect the fruit, I would ask a qualified individual.

[einreb]

Originally posted by white87911
depends on what kind of cherrie. They could be ripe and still taste sour if they are cherries designed for baking.

Yup. The cherries from the tree where I grew up required quite a bit of sugar for the pie.