I’m a new fruit grower (got a few peaches and apples in the ground last year) and I am going to try holistic growing, so I never intended to try cherry trees, since cherries are allegedly awful to grow and they’re perfectly good from the store. But cherries are my partner’s favorite, especially Rainier cherries. I’ve been looking for a moderately disease-resistant blush-type cherry (self-fertile a bonus) and I even found one — White Gold! Maybe I’m still looking too early in the year, but I can’t find one for sale. Cummins restocked all their fruit and the earliest they can send a white gold cherry is 2023. Some growers network called Bower and Branch has four-foot trees for $89. I think a lot of other places are still restocking. I want a little one so I can use the KGB method. I didn’t want to graft cherries either (my grafted apples have done very well so far but that’s apples) but I’d be interested in White Gold scionwood if anyone will have it this spring.
I’m posting this to see if there might be another disease-resistant Rainier-type cherry to look out for in the meantime as the nurseries update their stock. Any ideas?
Yum, I should try them!! No plums yet except Beach Plums. I was telling my partner yesterday that it’s so unfair that the Rose family is so good at feeding us … even some of our small native fruits like beach plums and serviceberries are rose plants and susceptible to the same diseases our regular fruit trees have …. Anyway, I digress, thanks for the suggestion!
Of course I’d searched 5-10 nursery pages before I posted this, then checked back at Burnt Ridge (last check a month or so ago) and they seem to have White Gold in stock! I may be in luck, but happy to keep this thread open because disease-resistant cherries seem hard to come by and I’d still welcome suggestions, as others might as well.
You are in CT. Wanting to grow cherries with a holistic approach is a tall task. Eventually, brown rot will get your cherries.
Mirabelle plums, besides brown rot, black not will be your headache, too. Don’t want to be a bearer of bad news but that has been my actual experience.
@scottfsmith grows White Gold in MD. He grows fruit trees organically, for the most part but I think he spray fungicide for brown rot. @BobVance is in CT. I think he grows cherries, too. Scott and Bob may be able to give you pertinent advice.
@mamaung You are absolutely right. There is a big gap between what actually grows well here with holistic management and what we like to eat. I’m hoping to have some success with biofungicides like Double Nickel and Regalia. I also plan to keep all the trees small, because I am not likely to do everything that needs doing if I have to get up on a ladder to do it. And invest in some other strategies like predator-attracting flower plantings, foliar feeding/immune system building, and practicing my resigned head shake for when some things don’t work out. But I think it’s very likely I’ll get a few easier years and then end up needing conventional sprays like most other growers do. At least I’m crossing my fingers for a few easier years first …
Anyway, thank you for your reply and mentioning the other growers! This forum is really a wealth of information and all three of you are big contributors so thank you for the welcome to the forum
I know Raintree sells white gold. Mehrabyan Nursery had 1 more left I believe. Stonefruit is hard to do without sprays. Too many pests and fungal issues.
White Gold is unique in that it’s a self-fertile blush cherry. There are other blush cherries like Emperor Francis, Governor Wood, Kirkland, Coe’s Transparent, Royal Ann/Napoleon, but these all require pollinators.
There is only one other self-fertile blush cherry that I am aware of - Stardust. This was developed in BC, Canada, which means there are some cross border licensing barriers. As a result, it’s harder to find in the US (though not impossible) compared to White Gold, which was released by Cornell (NY13688, Newfane cv).
Actually, in the right site with full sun cherries are relatively easy for me to protect from pests- one insecticide spray and later one Indar brown rot spray- then pray for relatively dry weather as they ripen. I’m not sure what holistic means in fruit production but I assume you probably mean organic, and I’m not sure if that will work out. It’s possible that sulfur could be used to prevent rot and surround to protect fruit from pests, but I haven’t tried even protecting cherries with Surround, let alone with sulfur. I’m confident the Surround part would work- one insect can destroy a piece of fruit but cherries have so many.
I use Surround/spinosad for bugs on my cherries and it works very well. Brown rot is the biggest problem and now that I use a synthetic I get none of that. So, cherries are actually one of the easier stone fruits for me. My trees are also big so they are above the deer; the birds are the only problem.
@Griffin, I have White Gold scion wood if you can’t find a tree or wood elsewhere.
Another option is Schlabach’s. They have a fairly good selection of sweet cherries on Krymsk. They have White Gold available most years. My trees from them came on Krymsk 6. Trees run about $20 ea.
They are Amish so you will need to write a short letter asking for a catalog and send them a check for $2.00.
Schlabach’s Nursery
2784 Murdock RD
Medina, NY 14103
Another vendor is Grandpa’s orchard. They carry White Gold most years.
As far as difficulty Sweet cherries have a bunch of issues. Carefully selecting the cultivar (White Gold is a good choice) helps but brown rot, canker, insects, birds, etc. can be very difficult to deal with. Tart cherries are much easier. I would look at these threads to get an idea of what your up against and they also has a fair number of tips that will increase your chances of success.
I tried to buy from schlach’s. I called them a bunch of times and there was not reply ever. If you are going to make a challenge for me to buy something and make me go out of my way to get it I can’t imagine the struggle it would be getting in touch with them if something was wrong with the order.
And so are squirrels. Both baffling and netting on the same tree is a big pain. Squirrels will often happily tear through anything but metal to get to cherries.
This year fruit eating birds were much less an issue than usual besides crows. At some sites flocks of crows broke the branches of young heavily laden cherry trees. They at least can be stopped by just drooping a net over a tree being very awkward birds on the ground.
Schlabach’s is Amish. They don’t use phones since that doesn’t agree with their religious beliefs. The phone line is for catalog requests only (I have never used it). They have good prices on trees and the trees I have received from them are good quality. Sweet cherries from them are on Krymsk rootstocks that are very hard to find if your not buying trees in the hundreds.
In reality, I think Schlabach’s would probably have better customer service than many other vendors provided your willing to right a letter.
You can call Schlabach at 585 798-6198. You can leave a message to request a catalog or ask them to call you back. I have called them. Sometimes, someone picks up the phone. Other times, I left a message. They also called me back.
It depends on when you call. At this time, it may be easier because the season is winding down. Calling late afternoon when they are not in the field may be better.
They are nice people. When I got a plum tree with 1/3 of root chopped off. I called to let them know. They sent me a new tree no question asked. They did not request me to show any evidence. They took me at my words. One time, I overpaid without knowing it. They sent me a check for the difference!! I like their honesty.
Their trees are good quality and on a cheaper price. I will do business with them again.
@mroot Most Amish churches other than old order will use phones. They must be in a separate building not attached to the house or primary living area. Most of my Amish neighbors growing up had a little shed with nothing but a chair and a phone in it for that purpose.
Thank you so much to everyone for your advice and offers of help! I thought I’d replied before, but no. I just got my White Gold today (from Burnt Ridge after all) and am very happy with how it looks.
@scottfsmith, thank you so much for the offer of scionwood. I was able to find a tree, luckily. What synthetic do you combine with Surround to protect your cherries?
@mroot, thank you for the lead on Schlabach’s. I ordered a catalog from them and didn’t end up ordering trees this year but I may next year. Looks like they have some excellent options. Thanks for the thread links, too!
And thanks to everyone else as well I don’t post a lot but I read a ton, and I love this forum.
Here, most years, they pretty much go after any cherries, including sours. With crows you can just loosely throw a net over the tree- last year crows broke branches at a couple of sites from landing on young trees. But usually other birds go for cherries as well, requiring tying the net to the trunk with no points of entrance. You sacrifice the cherries closest to the net unless you want to build a frame (I don’t). The problem is that woven nets tend to be not very available and way overpriced where they are (American Nettings for instance, which sells flimsy nets for over $50 dollars for a 30X30’ square).
I really can’t understand why there are so few sources for reusable nets beyond large rolls of 15’ wide netting from vineyard suppliers. I hate monofilament- we manage to cover and remove nets with woven material in 5-10 minutes and reuse them for many years by installing them just before birds take interest and removal immediately after harvest.
