Sweet cherry is one of the most popular fruit trees, especially in the southern regions of the Eurasian continent. Its fruits ripen much earlier than others, have good transportability, and the pleasure of eating these sweet and juicy berries after a long and boring winter is simply impossible to describe! It is not surprising that more and more varieties of this tree appear every year and, having made the decision to plant it in their own area, it is sometimes difficult to make the best choice. We offer to get acquainted with the real aristocrat among his fellows - the Franz Joseph variety (other names are "Francis" and not very harmonious "Dense Myas").
- Breeding history
- Tree description
- Fruit Description
- Pollination
- Fruiting
- Gestation period
- Yield
- Transportability
- Resistance to environmental conditions and diseases
- Drought tolerance
- Winter hardiness
- Use of fruits
- Advantages and disadvantages
- pros
- Minuses
Breeding history
Franz-Joseph I There are unfortunately no reliable data on the breeding history of this variety, as well as information about why the tree was named after the famous Austrian emperor from the Habsburg dynasty.
Nevertheless, we know for sure that the variety came to us from Western Europe, most likely from the Czech Republic, where, in turn, appeared at the end of the XIX century.
It is believed that its author is Iosif-edward prohe, which, by the way, was not a breeder, but a pomolog, that is, a scientist studying plant varieties. Perhaps it was the author’s own name that laid down in the name of the new variety, associating it out of modesty with the name of his great namesake.
In the Soviet Union, the Czechoslovak variety began to actively look after the end of the Second World War. In 1947, this fruit tree was included in the state register, and from 1974 it began to be grown on an industrial scale mainly in the North Caucasus region, in particular, in Kabardino-Balkaria, Adygea, North Ossetia, Krasnodar and Stavropol Krai,and also Karachay-Cherkessia. 
Today "Francis" is well known, loved and successful. bred almost all over Ukraine (in particular, in Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Kirovograd, Zaporizhia, Kherson, Nikolaev, Odessa, Ternopil, Khmelnytsky, Chernivtsi, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and other regions), as well as in Moldova and Central Asia. Especially good European variety feels on the Crimean peninsula.
In Russia, in addition to the above-mentioned regions, the tree is also grown in the Rostov region.
Tree description
The "Franz Joseph" tree is rather large, with a not too thick crown in the shape of a wide oval. Skeletal branches are arranged in tiers, which is typical of the high pyramidal crown type. The leaves are egg-shaped with an elongated end, rather large in size.
Saplings are usually sold at one-year age, the optimum stock is steppe cherry.
Fruit Description
Fruits have a round or wide-oval shape with a distinct small groove, passing in the middle on one side (on the opposite side, it is almost invisible). The color is yellow with an amber tint and a bright red side or a "blush" covering almost the entire surface. The flesh is also yellow, but with a pink tinge. 
The size of the fruit is quite large, from 5 g to 8 g, but still this variety is inferior in size to such competitors as “Large-fruited”, “Bull-heart”, “Daibego”, “Italiana”.
Taste in "Dense Meat" sweet with spicy sournessdespite the density, very tender and juicy. According to the generally accepted five-point scale, the tasting qualities of the “Franz Joseph” fruits are rated very high, gaining from 4.2 to 4.5 points.
Pollination
Very often, having planted a high-yielding variety of sweet cherries on the site, inexperienced gardeners wonder why the tree does not begin to bear fruit. And the reason is simple: a sweet cherry cannot be pollinated.
Sweet cherry "Franz Joseph", unfortunately, is no exception. Its fruits are better tied when planting nearby other varieties of sweet cherries. The best pollinators for her are: "Jabule", "South Coast Red", "Drogan Yellow", "Black Dyber", "Biggaro Gosha", "Early Cassina", "Golden", "Biggaro Groll", "Gedelfingen", "Denissen Yellow". 
However, it should be said that even with such a joint planting sometimes it is not possible to achieve a good harvest. If such a problem arises, experienced gardeners are advised to resort to "at least" - manual pollination.
The technology of manual pollination is the topic of a separate article, here we will not dwell on it, our task is only to calm the unfortunate summer residents who have planted the high-yielding Franz Joseph on their plot and are not receiving the expected return from the tree.
Fruiting
The period of fruiting "Francis" can reach no earlier than the fourth year of life, more often - on the fifth or sixth. Nevertheless, in the first years the harvest, of course, is small, but at the age of 7-8 years old, the tree will already fully appreciate its owner. 
The above characteristics of the onset of fruiting for sweet cherries are very good indicators. According to this parameter, "Franz Joseph", of course, refers to the leaders in its group, except for such varieties of sweet cherries as "Golden", "Jabule" and "Elton".
Gestation period
Like most biggaros, "Francis" does not belong to the early varieties of sweet cherries, but rather to the middle ones. Depending on the region, the fruits reach technical ripeness in June, and not earlier than the second decade or closer to the end of the first month of summer.
Yield
But on the yield of the variety should be said especially. Cherry is generally a very prolific tree, its yield is higher than that of a cherry, at least 2, or even 3 times. But "Francis" is a unique case even for sweet cherries.
Of course, the absolute fertility indicators depend on the region of cultivation, the age of the tree, the conditions of care and other factors, but we will call a few numbers. 
On the 10-year-old tree varieties "Franz Joseph" is removed on average 35 kg of fruits, with a 15-year-old - 40 kg.
If in the North Caucasus region, the yield record is measured at 30 kg per year, in Ukraine, one tree is removed per season by 60-70 kg of excellent cherries.
Transportability
Another characteristic by which "Francis" is the undoubted leader is the transportability of fruits.
Bringing new varieties of cherries, breeders are trying to achieve increased crop resistance to storage and transportation, and I must say that this task is being successfully solved. However, "Franz Joseph" continues to be among the best varieties of sweet cherry in this important indicator, especially in industrial production. 
Resistance to environmental conditions and diseases
I. Prohe brought enough resistant sweet cherry variety. The tree is relatively resistant to various environmental conditions (it suffices to recall a fairly wide area of its zoning), copes with attacks of pests. As for fungal infections, the situation here is also generally quite good. During the fruiting period, gray rot is the most dangerous for the sweet cherry (the spreader is the fungus Botrytis cinerea), which often affects the fruits in too wet weather and can greatly affect the volume and quality of the crop.
Three other malignant fossil stone crops — moniliosis, kleasterosporiosis, and coccomycosis — can also inflict certain damage on Franz Joseph. Moniliasis, or monilial burn, is dangerous for a tree to a lesser extent (one point out of three possible, that is, the probability of damage is not more than 33.3%); with two other things, things are a little worse: the probability of being affected by coccomycosis is 62.5%; perforated spotting - about 70%. However, compared with other varieties of sweet cherries, these figures are not such a bad result!
Drought tolerance
Sweet cherry is a southern tree, therefore frosts are much more terrible for it than drought.It is quite enough that the plant did not experience a lack of moisture in the period when it enters the phase of active growth after winter and begins to form fruits. 
Fortunately, it is usually just at this time that the water in the ground is sufficient, on the contrary, they begin to crack because of an excess of moisture during the ripening of the berries. This is the perennial problem of cherry growers. A tree should be plentifully watered in the middle of autumn, but the purpose of this procedure is to help the cherries survive the difficult time for it - the winter, because, as you know, dry earth freezes through more.
Nevertheless, among other varieties of sweet cherry, “Frans Joseph” is not distinguished by drought tolerance and is inferior in this parameter to such varieties as “Kitaevskaya Chernaya”, “Krupnoplodnaya”, “Polyanka”, “Household”, “Russkaya”, “Melitopol Early”, and even less drought-resistant varieties such as “Bahor”, “Biggaro Napoleon White”, “Biggaro Oratovsky”, “Vinka” and “Exhibition”.
Winter hardiness
Everything is good in the cherry - and the yield and taste of the fruit, and even resistance to pests and diseases. One problem: trees can hardly stand frost. For this reason, for a long time, sweet cherries were grown exclusively in the southern regions and remained practically inaccessible even for the Central zone.It is for this reason that breeders have directed all efforts to move the cherry to at least a little to the north.
"Franz Joseph" - one of the first such attempts. If you recall the map, it will become clear that the Czech Republic is the birthplace of the variety — it is located much to the north of the Crimea, in winter it is cold enough (to -30 ° C!), And heavy snowfalls often give way to thaws and new frosts, and when the temperature rises, often sharp , sometimes heavy winds. All this is not very familiar conditions for the southern fruit trees, however, "Franz Joseph" was developed in such climatic conditions. 
By existing standards, "Francis" is still taken to refer to varieties of medium frost resistance, since recently there are varieties of sweet cherries that can grow much more to the north.
In this regard, when grown in cold winters, young saplings strongly recommend covering for the winter during the first two years of life, and also, as already mentioned, take care of preparing the ground for frost (heavy watering to a depth of at least 40 cm and subsequent mulching of the near-barrel circle to prevent evaporation of moisture).
It has been noticed that already at a temperature below -23 ° C more than half of Franz Joseph flower buds die, although the wood itself suffers such frost without damage. But at lower temperatures, both the trunk and skeletal branches can freeze slightly.
Use of fruits
As it was said, the fruits of "Francis" have excellent taste and are great for fresh use (Fortunately, they are well transported and stored). 
But the main advantage of the variety (as well as the other cherries of the Biggaro type) is that you can also make excellent jams and compotes from its fruits, since their dense pulp does not fall apart during heat treatment, like that of cherries.
Cherry varieties "Franz Joseph" can also be dried. This is a great way to cope with a huge harvest, and believe me, these fruits are not inferior in taste to raisins and dried apricots, but this is much more original. But use the advice: so that when harvesting all the precious juice does not flow out of the fruit: the stone should not be removed before, but after drying. Add dried sweet cherries to your favorite cake — and your homemade ones will be pleasantly surprised by the new and unusual flavor. 
Advantages and disadvantages
From the above detailed description of the variety, one can summarize the main advantages and disadvantages of the Franz Josef sweet cherry.
pros
- High productivity.
- Excellent transportability (almost reference).
- Early period of onset of fruiting.
- High taste and appearance qualities of fruits, rather large in size.
- A wide field for the application of the harvest - the use of raw, as well as use as blanks.
- High frost resistance of vegetative organs.
Minuses
- Average winter hardiness (not suitable for growing in cold regions).
- Relatively low drought tolerance.
- Average keeping quality of fruits.
- With similar indicators of transportability, there are more large-fruited varieties.
- During prolonged rains during the fruiting period, cherries are affected by gray rot and crack.
- Not capable of self-pollination.
- Relatively late maturation (second half of June).
"Franz Joseph" is a sweet cherry tree, which, of course, should be planted on your plot if you live not north of the Volgograd region of Russia or the Czech Republic in Europe. With proper and fairly simple care and the presence of pollinating neighbors, this aristocratic variety will surely please you if not very early, but very abundant and tasty harvest, the surplus of which you can easily save in the form of blanks until winter.
