Has anyone planted cherry trees?

[sandbur]

I had a friend well up in zone 3 that had some younger cherry trees. He got some fruit and made jelly, but the winter of two or three years ago took them out.

I do have some nankings here on the edge of zone 3. The robins like them and I grab a handful while mowing grass by them. They are a Bush. When I was a kid in the ‘70’s and grew up in zone 3, winter even took them out.

We have black cherry here on the edge of zone 3, but I have not seen them well up in zone 3.


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[H20fwler]

Sour cherries have been a disappointment for me. I have a from Cummins that I planted in 2015 and 2016. Balaton on Gisele12 and a Surefire on Mahaleb. Neither has grown much. The Mahaleb rootstock looked like it had been regrafted a few times. It was over in 1" thick below the short scion with thick roots. Despite that huge rootstock, it is still less than 5ft tall after 5 years. The Balaton/Gisele looks healthier but it is only about 6ft tall. I had another in 2015, a Sumadinka on Mahaleb, that was the worst tree I ever got from Cummins, especially since I was charged for top grade feathered tree. It was about a 36" tall whip with a couple tiny side roots. It started to leaf out but was dead by July. Maybe if I had potted it and babied it, it would have survived.

Thats been my experience with cherries too. My original five cherry trees were from Cummins/Stark/Raintree as whips, two Rainiers one Stella one Black Gold and a Bing.
Fours years later just the two Rainiers left both around 6’ tall haven’t produced any cherries yet but blossom like crazy in spring.
I hadn’t ever pruned them at all because I didn’t really know how they were supposed to be, last week I cut off all the low stuff and pruned some inside branches on tops. Maybe that will help them finally take off.
Mine are planted in loamy heavy clay.

 

[chickenlittle]

I prune mine lightly each year to see if that pushes them to grow but it doesn't seem to have an impact.