How do I know when my cherries are ready?

[backtothesoil]

I inherited a cherry tree in the house we just bought, and its full of cherries....but its a 4 variety tree and I don't know what to pick when! The varieties are:

Rainer, Bing, Sam, and Montmorency. Is there a good way to tell when a cherry is ready? I don't think I can go by color with anything other than the Rainier, because a red cherry might be a ready Mont, or an unripe Bing. Whats an inexperienced cherry tree owner to do!?

[Saffron]

I think most of those are ready in early to mid July

Because mine were all yellow when ripe, I missed out on them for two years thinknig they weren't ready. But I got to looking closely and they had a greenish tint that went away when they were ripe. They also developed a "look" to them - waxy-soft, instead of looking like balled-up hard wax.

If nothing else - watch the birds and jump in fast!

[EDDIE BUCK]

Originally Posted by Saffron

If nothing else - watch the birds and jump in fast!

Thats the truth,when I noticed more birds than normal in my mullberry tree they were winding up eating them all,barely got a hand full.Next spring I'll keep a better lookout for the birds. If you can, put some kind of netting or rowcover material over your tree and make them birds wait their turn. EB

[NickieL]

taste em.

[Windy in Kansas]

Brix measuring instrument. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brix