Interesting. I think until recently Gi3 was considered “experimental”. Not sure if they’re done experimenting, or if homeowners are just lucky guinea pigs.
Please let us know how the cherries on Gi3 turn out.
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Both are maroon.
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Galina,
I have only one tree of Vandalay and several grafted varieties on it. I figured out that if I graft many, I would definitely have some pollen compatible. The grafts are White gold, Utah giant, Lapins, Stella, Benton, Kristin and maybe something else that I missed. They all had 2-3 fruits this year. I found that grafting sweet cherries is easy so this is the way I would recommend to do it.
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That’s me again… Still choosing cherry variety for UFO-Y training on G5(trees planted in a row on 45 degree angle and trained on horizontal wire 20’’ from the ground. From there vertical shoots are trained on sets of two parallel wires making Y shaped structure if you look from the end of the row.) This source, page 50 directs planting them on 3-4’ distance if they are on dwarfing rootstock, like G5. For me it is to choose between 3 or 4 trees on 12’ row. Do you think 4 trees will be too aggressive? My thoughts are - they will be planted in good fertile garden soil, so a little root competition shouldn’t be a bad thing to keep grow habits at bay and also can help with cracking, as less water per tree will be available from the ground(top will be covered) And for foliage perspective, it is still opposite semi-vertical shoots every 4 inches, so it shouldn’t be any difference if it is 3 or 4 trees. I may actually benefit from 4 trees, as it is almost impossible to get long whips from nursery, and shorter distance between trees is easier to fill with short whips. Do I miss anything?
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OK, I decided to plant 4 cherry trees on G5 on 12’ long raised bed. I am going to build a structure around them to be able to cover it with net against bugs and birds, cover with tarp for emergency freeze protection or have a plastic cover on top of them against the rain. Now I need to choose 4 trees. Help is appreciated!
So far I have chosen Raintree nursery as source of my trees. I only want dark red cherry - no bright red, no yellow.
I selected 5 trees from “disease resistant” category(though I am not sure how much difference it makes, as most of the trees in that category listed as crack resistant, but other sources tell me they are not.)
This is what I ended up with:
Hartland
Tehranivee
Lapins
Vandalay
Black Gold
Can you help me to choose 4 trees? (from that list of make your own!)
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I can’t help much, fruitnut more, but soft cherries are not as good, and Black Gold is soft I believe?
They all not as firm as Bing, but I am not sure if Bing could grow here in North East. So far I’ve updated the list, the new list is:
Early Burlat (first in the season)
Tehranivee
Vandalay
Hudson (last in the season)
Any objections? 
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I’ve heard good things about Black Pearl but its not offered by Raintree. I have Black Gold on G5 from Raintree and its an odd grower. Hasn’t produced much yet. They were not as firm as if like.
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I can’t find any other place where they have at least 4 different cherry trees on G5 that will work in North east other then Raintree. They have at least trees to choose from. Do you know any?
Galina,
It may sound like I repeated myself.
Vandalay cracked so badly every year. A few that I got tasted similar to Black Gold, some sweetness, somewhat soft texture. I could not tell the difference between the two re. taste and texture. Removed Vandalay last year. No regret.
Biggest issues with cherries for me are cracking and rotting. Can’t prevent cracking (not willing to cover the trees with shade cloth when it rains) but Indar stops rotting.
My trees are on Gisela 5. A dwarf rootstock for cherry is a relative term. A cherry tree can grow 30-40 ft tall. 15 ft cherry tree can be considered dwarf. I has kept my BG at 6 ft tall in an umbrella shape.
I’ve read about many cherry pruning styles including KGB. You want to put 3-4 trees in a 12 ft long bed. That is a tall order, in my opinion. Even a KGB style needs at least 4-6 wide space. For 12 ft bed, two trees would be just right.
Cherry needs to have air circulation. Cramping them together could make rotting worse.
Heard that Lapins tastes good. Don’t know about Tehravinee or Hartland.
What I am planning to do is called UFO-Y training.You can look at it in online pdf, page 51 .
So the size of tree doesn’t really matter here as fruiting wood renewed regularly, and trained in a simple forms and headed at certain length. 3-4 feet is recommended space on G5. Basically, there will not be four different trees - it will be two tilted fruiting walls, where simple single branches in each wall are 8 inches spaced. I may achieve the same with less trees, but then it will be less different types of cherry. For the cover, I am going to make a structure to cover whole thing. The material seems to be working fine - this year I used it on peach(you checked it in the start of summer), the branch that I covered was far from been airy, even new grows curled inside. But amount of brown rot inside was less, than on uncovered branches.
Yup. I read the same article. Good luck. You can be a pioneer for us.
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