I bought a bundle of row-run Nanking seedlings 25 yrs ago, for a grafting experiment (they make an extreme dwarfing rootstock for peaches & plums). Left a few in the nursery row. Rarely get fruit - or, perhaps I just don’t look at the appropriate time, but after my first experience with the tiny little fruits that had just a thin rim of pulp around the pit… I knew they were not worth my time to pick.
I almost get the impression that they’re a fruit for folks in extreme cold zones who can’t grow a ‘real’ cherry (not that I care a whit about a cherry).
Zone 7b… I think you can do better than Nanking.
Just my $.02
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I had several bushes . I am in zone 5 in upstate NY. All of the bushes became infested with Blackknot. As for taste, they werent very sweet and not that great to eat. Size was very variable from year to year. I have one bush left that I havent ripped out , and that was only because it was giving some privacy along the fence line. Im taking it out in the spring and planting something else. Highbush Blueberries make great bushes for the yard that you can graze on as you pass by. You will have to put fine netting over them as they start to ripen, as the birds have the same idea.Get early , mid, and late blooming ones and you will have blueberries most of the summer. I was surprised my Elliot bush was still bearing in September and this was the first year it beared. My advice would be to buy the largest bushed you can find because they take a few years to do much. You will pay more for sure but its worth it.
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I can’t do blueberries because they are highly susceptible to juglone poisoning. the slice of my property that is Juglone free is dedicated to persimmons, jujubes, goumi, and figs.
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what do you recommend as an alternative?
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the consensus seems like they are not worth it for my needs, especially as I am no-spray only. thanks everyone for your help!
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Dr. Meader hybrids have done well for me in NJ. They ripen in July.
Jan, Joel, Joy Dr. Meader cherries - General Fruit Growing - Growing Fruit
I planted Nankings two years ago, no flowers (maybe 3) yet but they where quick to get established and quickly despite now growing in the shade.
I also planted a couple of Hansen Bush Cherries, Prunus besseyi Western Sand Cherry. Has not established or grown as fast as the Nankings. But its considers a low grower.
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Can Dr. Meader hybrids be grown successfully as a no spray fruit tree?
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Yes, so far.
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Like @clarkinks, we live in hot and humid NE Kansas, and have grown Nanking cherries for decades. Personally, I love them because they are always the first thing to bloom in the spring, and they have never failed to set a whole bunch of fruit, regardless of late freezes at any time in the spring. Ours only last five or six years, but they constantly reseed themselves. We don’t bother much to pick them, but some of the bushes make really big fruit (and I always think about saving seeds from those and actually planting them, but we have so much other fruiting things, that I usually forget).
Ours have suffered from no diseases (unlike our other cherries which get brown rot very readily). We think it’s borers that get them.
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We planted three Nanking cherries from Fedco maybe eight years ago. Considered as ornamentals, they’re decently attractive with a cheerful early bloom. Considered as a wildlife plant, birds seem to enjoy the cherries. In terms of fruit for human consumption, though, I can’t recommend them. The cherries are tiny little things that are mostly pit, and mostly pit. I’ll maybe pick a handful a year to nibble on, but that’s the extent of it. In terms of health: one of the bushes died this year (some kind of root rot), and another looks like it’s heading that way. I am planning to remove them and replace with something else.
Note: my understanding is that Nankings are generally seedlings. So, it’s entirely possible that someone could have a better, or worse, experience with them than I have, just due to seedling variation. But I can’t really recommend them for fruit production based on my experience.
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I think meader cherries are more of a bush than a tree. It doesn’t look like the plants get very big at all.
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I’m more concerned with their no-spray characteristics than their size.
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Granted, I’m not a cherry fan… they were not part of my culture/upbringing, and I don’t really care for them… but I planted a Montmorency for my wife & kids, early on. It bore heavily every year, and early enough to excape any insect damage that I ever noticed. No one would bother to pick them, so when it died some years later, I did not replace it.
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I’ve planted jujubes, goumi, persimmons, and cornus mas on my “juglone free” section of my property. never even tried any of those fruits. I’m willing to entertain any idea for juglone resistant shrubs/trees of tasty, no spray fruit.
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Persimmon. Blackberry/Raspberry. Pawpaw(though they’re not high on my list, anymore due to concerns about the suggested connection with non-Parkinson’s neurodegeneration).
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been living here since 2015 so I’m acutely aware of the standard juglone resistant fruits. Ribes, mulberries, American persimmon (no proof kaki persimmon is also resistant), black raspberries, pawpaw.
Blackberries are proven sensitive to juglone and there are mixed stories on raspberries. only black raspberries seem to be definitively juglone resistant. I grow the Ohio treasure cultivar.
every species of Prunus is supposed to be tolerant, hence why I wrote this thread asking about nanking cherries. I can work google to do searches like the best of them, but finding anecdotal evidence from multiple sources on specific, less well studied plants is what I come here for.
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I’m not very familiar with this- so you have a section of property with black walnuts or something? Is it something that can be removed or you just live with it there?
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@Moose So all parts of black walnut trees secrete an allopathic chemical called juglone that kills sensitive plants. even if you cut the trees down the chemicals remain in the soil for years (maybe a decade) as the roots decompose. you are supposed to plant juglone sensitive plants at least 50 feet from the drip line, that is, 50 feet from the edge of the canopy, to prevent poisoning. Penn State has a good list of Species that are resistant to juglone.
I have a section of my property that is west of my driveway, far from all of my black walnuts, and gets good sunlight. I reserve this area for all of my plantings of fruit trees/shrubs that have no or questionable juglone tolerance. my vegetable garden grows within the 50 foot radius of one tree, but I plant all of my veggies in grow bags on top of landscape fabric. I call it my poorman’s raised bed.
even though they limit me, I still like their look. and one in particular gives a massive crop every year, although I have never gathered it. I have one that a local arborist recommended I get officially measured as he suspected it is a “county champion” (official list of the largest cultivars). here
below is a picture of my property (2.25 acres) with the walnut trees circled in yellow.
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My atempt to make hedged row of cherries. My neighbor might not have been so enthusiastic about it and put up a fence. Jan and Joel went in spring 2020 they showed promise in 2021 with a few berries and their output and quality have gone up each year. But as you can see, they are rather slow growers when left unmanaged. Everything else was planted in 2022, Nankings and apricots stabilize quickly and grew rapidly in their second year. I made a couple of attempts to head off the leaders, but I did not get much branching. The fence went in this year and they shot for the sun. The Hansen Cherry, Western Sand cherry seems to be on a gap year. Hopefully it will take off in 2024.
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Look into the other colors of nankings, reds are definitely seedlings to begin with but some nurseries start from cuttings. There is quite a few named cultivars of the reds you can get besides the seedlings. In all fairness the reds can be vastly different. There is three cultivated white varieties available in the US and some yellows in other countries. There is an elusive black Nanking that I tried to track down also. I’ve seen some posts of a pink Nanking too. All of those are going to be vegetative propagation and should be identical to what others have experienced. For me nankings were great for snacks. Made some cherry whiskey and rum soaking them for a few weeks. They do good for jelly or processing but they have a large pit for the size of the fruit.
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