What rootstock? Some i think are more precocious than others.
Im adding about 50-75 varieties of cherries…its either going to be fun or a disaster…
I guess that link i posted was wrong… or this guy is wrong. He grows Lapins, Stella and StarKrimson… and notes that SK is 2 weeks behind Lapins and is more prone to cracking for him after a rain…whereas the Lapins and Stella didnt seem to.
FB is chock full of growers of StarKrimson all over the world its supposedly a very good cherry… but not much talk about it in many forums or youtubes here in the states.
No doubt… i will be happy if i want to keep 5 trees.
Hmm maybe 40? No im not sure Its been so hectic with cherries being scattered across nearly a dozen nurseries that its been a real challenge mentally. Not to mention i get sidetracked and order plums or nectarines or pears.
Just Freedom Farms sells about 20 varieties of cherries…
I should have most all of the sweet cherries plus most all of the sour and bush cherries. I am only lacking a few from US nurseries that are listed.
Don’t forget the scion sellers like Fruitwood. Those guys have some that are not commonly sold. Scott and I have both been through a number of varieties. Some of them are just not good east coast trees. The upside though is the ones that don’t work out can always be grafted over to ones that will.
Good point… not in my control but i will be getting many different rootstocks so interesting how that plays out. Colt, Gisela, Maxma, Krymsk, Mazzard
Anyways whatever comes in bare root im potting up/babying and planting Fall 2025 or Spring 2026… ive learned my lesson with these nurseries sending me chopped off roots in April/May and trying to keep them alive… too challenging with unknown rainfall/heat etc.
So im not going to be in the cherry business for a while… maybe some bush cherries if im lucky sooner.
Some people on the forum just love those bare root trees. Me, I’m not a fan. They almost always arrive near rootless and take forever to recover. Most of my cherries were 6-7 foot potted bought locally. Online by the time you buy the tree and pay postage there is not much difference in price between that and local potted.
Yes… i read some of Michael McConkey’s long winded rants about cherry trees… i guess back in the day he sourced as many as he could to grow in Virginia and he said that he lost alot due to what you say… and much less loss to potting them up and waiting until the roots established
Hard not to believe that… Rural King and Menards etc get 10s of thousands maybe hundreds of thousands of trees shipped all over the US by truck/freight then put out in parking lots then stuffed into cars then who knows what after that… all of those trees are potted and rootbound but pretty tough compared to a hacked bare root i think.
If for nothing else the time and energy and worrying should be much lower if i have a whole area just dedicated to potting up bare roots and planting them in the Fall. So many different policies from every different nursery that i will start getting trees in March and probably my last ones in May. Much easier to pot then to dig holes and irrigate and protect every week as plants come in. Thats my plan anyways.
This past summer it felt like all that i was getting done was watering new stuff or making sure my dogs didnt dig them up or finding vole holes… tired of that… thats my definition of insanity.
Where did you get your white gold? I got one from stark this year and it was a twig to say the least, and I’m not sure if it will survive the winter … So might need to find a replacement in the spring
I’ve tried to grow 6 or 7 nursery cultivars of sweet cherries in Pennsylvania and they have all died. However, there are naturalized wild growing sweet cherries here (Prunus avium) that get huge, are disease free and produce tens of thousands of small (but very tasty) and hard to reach fruit. So what I have started doing is grafting scions of these trees onto dwarfing cherry rootstock and planning on keeping them small and pruned to increase the size of the fruit. They have already been naturally selected for disease pressure in this area. I’ve seen naturalized sweet cherries all over the east coast.
I wonder how high quality fruits from a mazzard rootstock would be? It’s pure sweet cherry so it might be as good as these wild cherries and is highly disease resistant as it is
Obviously they won’t be as tasty as a named selection but maybe they won’t be astringent and just small
Regarding ability to handle clay soil would mazzard or G12 be better? I’m not worried about the size of the tree, just the ability to handle clay soil and handling a little water on the feet rarely (I know cherry doesn’t like that, but wondering which handles better)
In clay I think I would go with Gisela 12 I think it would do better. It is also a better all around rootstock. The main problem with Gisela is finding trees on that rootstock. Krymsk 5 or 6 would also work well.
How does everyone feel about krysmk 7? I think this is a better thread to ask than where I did a few weeks ago…on paper, it seems like the better choice than 6 for clay and heat maybe even over G5.
And, while we’re at it, maybe third times a charm finding anyone with ebony pearl or burgundy pearl experience?
Cummins is carrying white gold and pearls on it. I preordered for next year but mostly just to reserve. I’m still trying to find real life experience help.
Its been so hectic with cherries being scattered across nearly a dozen nurseries that its been a real challenge mentally. Not to mention i get sidetracked and order plums or nectarines or pears.