Konrad--I'll post a better picture. Didn't realize the one I posted of the blossoms was so terrible. Haven't quite figured the bit about posting pictures out yet, but below is a link to a better picture. The moth is actually dead center in the photo in the original post. The honeybees were out when the trees were blooming, but I also had a lot of bumblebees and a lot of smaller, wild bees of a number of different varieties visiting the flowers on the different fruit trees, plus these moths in droves in the evenings. I don't grow honey bees, though the beekeeper that covers this area has a set of hives about a mile and a quarter south of me. I grow leaf cutter bees, however. They are of no use in pollinating fruit trees because they don't start to hatch naturally until mid to late June, and raising them we set the hatch to start no earlier than the 21st of June. They really don't move below 70-75 degrees and it takes consistent weather in the 80's before the leaf cutters really go to work. We use them for pollinating alfalfa for seed. The Evans really seems to be a productive tree for its size, which makes it much easier to net to keep the birds away, and so far despite being loaded with fruit every year it hasn't gone into a biennial fruiting habit like apples do. Our other cherries tend to be rather hit and miss--some years are loaded, others aren't, and you face the risk of a hard frost during bloom. Here is a link that might be useful:

Looks like I haven't answered some of the questions... >>May I ask where you get those food grade containers - I so could use some rather then buying an extra crock for my cabbage - or should I take up wine making.<< Got it from wine store. Done the juice extracting today..about 65 Liters, filled a 50 L. keg without any sugar added this time, the rest in 2L. pop bottles not filled all the way, can open better under pressure, [sparkling wine]. Brix/sugar content is a little over 12%, not bad for a wet year I think. From a leftover stainless steel piece after milling I made a better mixer, [welded/added in the center piece] to rip the cherries apart after thawing out in that container.

I would not go so far as to say MG products are no good; what I would say is that I am not a fan of any of the MG products. They are mostly one-size-fits-all, off the shelf products for people who do not want to learn the right way. Having said that, whether in ground or in container the "soil" is simply a medium to hold the roots and the tree; so in truth any "soil" will work; it just depends on how easy or how hard you must work to live with it. Hydroponic growing has no soil at all; but it requires specialized systems and specialized knowledge.

Hello Konrad, Thank you for commenting. I've read your posts about Evans cherries - amazing productivity! - and learned a lot. I think it was mostly the information I got from your posts that motivated me to try an Evans. This little tree grew well the first two months, and then slowed down in August. But it ended the season quite healthy as far as I could tell. I stopped watering sometime in early September, but of course we got some fall rain here. The land where it is planted needs help, which I'm working on. But I wanted to plant something now, not several years down the road. The various posts I've read about Evans cherries doing well in all types of soil encouraged me to try one now rather than wait. Close by are some elderberries, planted in 2015, that did not do well in 2016. I'm not sure why because I spent a LOT of time preparing the soil before I planted them, and then kept them watered when it was so dry here last year. Ill have to move those that survived in 2017 I guess. Yes, I've had a terrible time with animals the last 4 or 5 years - deer, woodchucks, raccoons, mice. But slowly I've been removing brush, filling in burrows, and fencing things, so I ended the 2016 growing season with no signs of critters. Also, late last fall I was doing a last check of the garden one night, and saw an owl (didn't hear it, but saw it), and that explained why I hadn't been seeing any mice in recent weeks. I fenced the Evans right from the "get-go" because I did not want to risk any damage! Thanks for your encouragement. I'll keep posting. Kathleen