Fruit matures early; nearly one inch in diameter, roundish-cordate, slightly compressed; cavity regular, abrupt; suture indistinct; apex blunt-pointed or slightly depressed; color pale amber faintly mottled with red; dots small, light yellow, inconspicuous; stem slender, one and one-half inches long, adherent to the fruit; skin thin, of medium toughness, separating from the pulp; flesh pale yellow, with colorless juice, tender, meaty, mild, sweet; good to very good in quality; stone semi-free or free, one-half inch long, less than one-half inch wide, roundish, somewhat flattened, blunt, with smooth surfaces; ridged along the ventral suture.
1. _Del. Sta. Bul._ =35=:16, 17 fig. 1897.
Dikeman has some merit as a very late Sweet Cherry but here its usefulness ends. The cherries are too small and the pits too large for this variety to have great worth. The tree is somewhat remarkable for its spreading habit and stout branches. Plant-breeders seeking for a very late sort might well choose Dikeman as a parent.
Two very similar cherries, with a variation in the spelling, pass under this name. Late in the Eighteenth Century there appeared a cherry on the Dyckman farm near New York City. Some thought it to be identical with Black Tartarian; others said it was distinct and called it Dyckman. It was never more than of local note. Some few years ago the late S. D. Willard of Geneva introduced the Dikeman cherry from the farm of George B. Dikeman, Oceana County, Michigan. This variety often goes under the name Dykeman but from the information at hand we feel certain that Dikeman is the correct spelling. On our grounds this variety and Black Tartarian, although similar, are two distinct sorts, the Dikeman being later, firmer and a clingstone.
Tree large, vigorous, broadly-spreading, open-topped, productive; trunk and branches thick, smooth; branches reddish-brown covered with ash-gray, with numerous lenticels which are variable in size; branchlets short, brown, partly covered with ash-gray, smooth, glabrous, with inconspicuous, slightly raised lenticels.
Leaves numerous, four and one-half inches long, two and one-fourth inches wide, folded upward, obovate to long-elliptical, thin; upper surface medium green, slightly rugose; lower surface light green, faintly pubescent; apex acute, base abrupt; margin coarsely and doubly serrate; petiole about one and one-half inches long, tinged with red, with a few hairs, with from one to four reniform, reddish glands, usually on the stalk.