I second that White Gold is a better choice. It’s also self-fertile. You can also look at Black Gold which self-fertile as well.
The sweet cherries will grow just fine in zone 5B and in New York state. The problem with sweet cherries is brown rot and insects and to a certain degree animals eating your fruit.
I would look at the Eastern Sweet Cherry threads to get an idea of the difficulties of growing sweet cherries in the East.
Anyone know how WhiteGold and Stardust compare? I think they’re both self fertile?
@Robert grafted stardust in one of the other cherry threads. Not sure if he’s getting anything this year from it.
I planted white gold this spring so gonna be awhile until I get anything.
I”m concerned about my two sweet cherry trees. One is a Dave Wilson multi bud that has alway struggled. The other is a White Gold or Black Hold on Krymsk from Meyrabyen nursery in Ithaca, NY. Do any of you have experience or information on sweet cherry trees wilting?
My 5-7 year old trees have 1-2 branches each in various stages of wilt.
One tree (multi bud) admittedly has had canker in the past. Two weeks ago, I removed dead wood. I disinfect between cuts and spray cuts with oregano oil mixed with water. I had accepted that this tree is on borrowed time.
But the other was quite vigorous last year. It is in a separate area. Throwing out long branches. No flowering this year. Maybe it was trying to tell me something.
I get the soil tested bi-annually. I did spray with alternating copper and immunex and dormant oil at the appropriate time. Last week, I hit them with clay spray when petals dropped and fruit showed up on the one cherry.
The trees have regular irrigation and I just dug in to make sure it is not too wet. I need to know if these trees are both goners.
I suspect they are. So sad. I still have one left that looks happy in a separate bed.
Is that an exhaust vent/dryer vent blowing on the one branch ? That might be causing problems for you.
Whitegold is claimed to be self fertile. I got fruit despite not having a second sweet cherry though I just discovered a feral sweet cherry about 500 feet away so it could have been pollenizing my tree.
Another problem with sweet cherries here is cracking after heavy rains. I haven’t had mine long enough to know if that’s an issue but whitegold is supposed to be crack resistant and was developed for this climate by Cornell (as was blackgold)
I was wondering about that vent too, but the branch wouldn’t have grown there if it were an issue. I’m guessing something ate the roots.
My black tartarian always has leaves like this. It seems fine otherwise. It just has like weeping leaves. The second one not the first this is after 3 days of rain
My other cherry a few feet away doesnt have droopy leaves. I think its just the cultivar idk. My other one is slightly perkier but honestly all sweet cherries do have somewhat droopy leaves
Not fruiting yet.
All cherry varieties can crack. Some are not as bad as others. I’m a big fan of the Cornell varieties though.
This thread chronicles my cherries. No update this year though as the late freeze wiped out everything here.
If I stop pruning my WhiteGold Cherry Tree (che-whi) x 1, BlackGold™ Cherry Tree (che-bla) x 1 both on Krymsk 5 × 1 rootstock. How big will they get? I bought them from a favorite nursery https://www.mehrabyannursery.com/ and planted them as bare root in March 2022.
Once they were planted, I gave each a heading cut to make them about 3-4 feet tall. I have one ( black gold) with one of its three main branches wilting and lost all of its leaves on that branch. The white gold has experienced gumtosis twice but otherwise is ok.
I’m considering stopping pruning these cherry trees altogether, because they seem to be prone to disease. My question is: if I stop pruning altogether, how big & wide will they get?
When I did prune them, it was always on a hot dry day and I disinfected inbetween each cut. The wilting is what really has me confused. I want to know what caused it and should I leave those leafless branches up or remove them?
I’m having the same issue with a Lapins cherry that has Black and White Gold grafted to it along with 2 other varieties. There doesn’t seem to be any symptoms of diseases but most of the leaves wilted and eventually fell off. A 2nd similar tree 12 ft aways seems fine and thriving. My hunch is that it was planted in a low spot of the yard where rain water sometimes puddle and we had 3 days of continuous rain several weeks weeks back. Maybe cherries don’t like wet roots.
Cherries are notoriously intolerant of “wet feet.”
I ordered a WhiteGold on Krymsk 6 from Cummins.
Would it be crazy to plant it near the house (under the roof overhang) and train it to a UFO? It would be along the East facing wall and get sun from sunrise until ~2-3PM. It wouldn’t get rained directly on at least in lighter (i.e. non-sideways) storms, which should reduce the risk of cracking.
