Lapins Production Experience: Commercially grown in Canada for nearly 25 years. There is considerably less experience with this cherry in the Pacific Northwest but nevertheless it is a heavily planted variety over the last ten years. Grower and packers seemed to have solved a number of initial quality issues most likely caused by improper production practices and harvest timing.
Fruit: Ripens 10 to 14 days after Bing. The fruit is firm with a mahogany-red skin and a lighter red flesh. Lapins produces a large, crack resistant cherry averaging 10 to 9 row in size. This is one of the best tasting varieties from the Summerland breeding program.
Bloom: Self-fertile, blooming just ahead of Bing.
Rootstock: On standard rootstock Lapins is of average precocity but very productive with a tendency to overset. This characteristic is intensified with the use of dwarfing rootstocks. Nevertheless, a number of growers in the Hood River Valley are successfully growing Lapins on Gisela 5 and 6 with heavy annual pruning.