Black Cherry and Black Krim have a spot in my garden every year.Have never grown GG,but have read good things about it.

AGG is well worth growing if you ever have the chance to pick up a plant....Just wonderful tasting!

Mike

Are there better equivalents to the ones I want to buy?

*****

Why don't you share with us what other varieties are already available to you to buy as plants.

If you can't do that I think you're going to get suggestions for varieties that aren't sold at the place where you're buying plants. ( smile)

Carolyn

I'd have liked to get an Aunt Gertie's Gold, but it's not available locally...For a yellow plant, you may find Lemon Boy... a very good yellow tom. Not as good IMHO as the yellows and golds that I choose, but still quite good. If you can find Kellogg's Breakfast, do that for an orange instead of Lemon Boy. But I doubt if you can get KB plants.

Reg

post in the trade section at the end of summer and folks will likely have seeds for SASE. Then you can get some really nifty stuff. Like this area, if you want to grow anything other than the usual suspects (boring hybrids, etc)then you have to order them or trade. I ordered from Seed Savers Exchange last year because I really wanted Nebraksa Wedding. I could not find it anywhere in Canada so they came all the way from the eastern States. Fortunately the zone was pretty similar so they did very well here. I also got Hillbilly and Amish Paste. And some herbs, just to round out the order and make it worthwhile.

Thanks for the responses, all.

This is what I have so far...

Momotaro (ground)
Black Krim (ground)
Tolstoi (ground)
Sungold (ground)
Black Cherry (container)
Celebrity (container)
Better Boy (container)
Roma (container)
Mama Mia (container)
Ace (container)
Green Grape (container)
Health Kick (container)

I have room for one more in the ground and one (maybe two) more in containers. I'd prefer an indeterminate heirloom to grow in the ground and a determinate or small indeterminate in the remaining 5 gal containers. Here are some varieties that I've been eyeing:

Persimon
Hillbilly
Principe Borghese
Italian Gold
Earl of Edgecomb
Limony
Taxi
Mexican

Any suggestions?

Do you have Mexican or Mexico?The latter is a good choice imo.

Just a heads up on Black Cherry...it can be grown in containers,but it is a very large and rangy plant.Be ready to trellis it somehow or it will be all over the place by fall:>)!

Mike

Mike, I meant Mexico.

Thanks for the heads-up on the Black Cherry. I didn't realize that. It's currently in a 10-gal container. Would that suffice? Should I re-transplant it into the ground? It's been in the container only for a week or so. If left in the container, maybe it would best be staked with only one growing stem?

A 15 gal container would be better, but Black Cherry can be successfully grown in a 10 gal container, as long as you keep up with the watering and fertilization, and can find a way to support it adequately and keep the pot from tipping in storms.

I will say as compared to other cherry types, I've found BC to suck down more water than most other cherries planted in containers, even varieties that get taller/larger. I don't know why that is, but that is my personal experience based on growing it 2x in a container.

If you leave it in a container, mulch it thickly (but not right up against the stem), as that will help keep the roots cool and cut down on evaporation from the surface of the container mix.

Honestly, I'd be hard-pressed on how to figure out how to take BC down to one central leader even if I wanted to, but your experience may vary. The plant seems to bush out like an octopus for me close to the base every time I have grown it. I'd suggest caging it somehow within the pot, using CRW. You could also use galvanized fencing (making a "c" or opening in order to give you access to pick). I suppose you could also put three tall stakes in the pot and use twine to make a sort of cage as it grows up.