My trees from Henry Fields just arrived! I haven’t even opened the box- just left them on my porch as its a super rainy day. Any tips before I plant them? Soak the roots?
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It’s always good to soak the roots before planting a bareroot tree. Some people soak over night but I’ve found a few hours is usually sufficient. Be prepared for some large roots as myself and many others received fantastic looking Romance cherries from Henry Fields this spring.
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Please post a photo when you open them, Annie! I have 3 of them on their way from HF myself and I’m worried they will be out of the big ones everyone else received earlier. Hope you got good ones!
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Plant them in the rain.
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I was in a bit of a rainy day frenzy but that probably would’ve been a great idea!
I think they look pretty good! (This coming from rather a novice…) The Romeo had a substantially larger root system but they almost look twisted in a clockwise(?) direction a bit. The CJ has fewer roots and is skinnier. The first pic is just as I brought the box inside to open. The second two pics are the Romeo, the third pic is the CJ, and the last pic is me soaking them for tonight so I can plant asap tomorrow. (Ok,
Wrong order on the pics, sorry!) I have four coming from Honeyberry and just got an email that they’ll ship this week:) i do expect those to be significantly smaller from what I’ve seen on here. I was under the impression that a 6’ spacing would work for these, does that sound right? I will post a pic from the accompanying guide that made me wonder.
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Thank-you so much for posting those!!! And let me be the first to say “HOLY COW”!!! Those look GREAT to me. Much better than most of the trees I get (at least as far as the roots go-since these are dwarfs its hard to compare top to a regular tree). I can tell you with absolute certainty that the romance cherries I bought last year were about 20% of the size of those. In fact, after a full growing season, they are still considerably smaller than your new ones! Now I just hope that they don’t run out of big healthy ones like this before I get mine, which should be next week! Thanks again for pics.
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Those look excellent! That’s what much of the stuff I get from them looks like. If i order it early I think it’s very likely they will send better stuff.
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Henry Fields gets a bad rap sometime but they stepped on their game on bush cherries.
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Will also try to post pics of what I get from honeyberryusa.
I’ve planted hundreds of fruit trees since 1971. Never once have I thought that over pruned roots set the tree back. I’m sure it can but honestly all this obsessing about roots seems a little over done to me. I know others have different opinions. But my experience is that with good care and proper watering they all grow fine.
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How are those cuttings doing?
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They look dead, some mulberries rooted though. Yeah today I hit one by mistake and it came out of the soil, A mulberry cutting, and it had 2 fine roots. I probably ripped the rest off! Darn! I have some CP cuttings outside, and they look alive. The buds didn’t break like indoors.
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Ok. Any point in pruning these a bit? I think I recall reading that most folks aren’t pruning them but I’m a total novice and would like to do these as well as possible! It seems that the light and air would have trouble getting into the middle once they (God willing!) lead out. I will also post a pics of two black cherry trees that I planted back in 2014 as a saplings and I’ve been pruning but maybe y’all will laugh bc I know it’s not a true “fruit” tree- it’s wild black cherry. And maybe folks don’t prune those lol. I’ve just really enjoyed the wild cherry fruits along the road here and at a neighbor’s house. Anyway- feel free to laugh at my pics kindly😉
and tell me there’s no need to prune the Romeo and CJ
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Don’t prune off any healthy branches, don’t prune them back either unless they have gotten straggly or odd-shaped, which does not appear to be the case. Only remove any diseased or broken branches. These things are meant to be bushy. Here’s how my Carmine Jewel looked in mid-February this year… all those branches let it produce 25-30 lbs of fruit last summer.
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I don’t disagree, pruned roots no doubt grow back fast but it is kind of nice to see a cherry bush with roots like you dug it up in your yard and moved it 30 feet.
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Ok, awesome. Thanks, Don. That is helpful to see- I think I’ve seen either all or mostly pics of them leaves out. It’s good to see how truly bush-y they are.
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I’ve been pruning my CJ to a subtle open center 
It’s really nice to see how ‘crowded’ the branches can get and still fruit well.
Harborseal, I’ll have a few skinny cuttings of CJ and Romeo very soon if you are interested in those. I grafted one of the skinny cuttings onto a sucker from my one sweet cherry and it’s budding, so it might have worked! These scions are mostly leafed out (CJ) or halfway so (Romeo) now.
I agree, and have had the same experience, just not as long. I often prune roots for container culture when repotting. Having said that the nice big roots, show you’re getting a well taken care of plant.
The flavor of these cherries is excellent, Don’s cherry cider looks fantastic! I bet that stuff IS fantastic!
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Any idea if the cuttings will root? I’d be interested, thanks.