I have a well established wild cherry (prunus avium) on the edge of my property. I am considering grafting sweet cherry to it. Is this feasible, does anyone have any experience doing this? I have not grafted cherry before. Is there a graft type that is more preferable for cherry?
Don’t take this as gospel but I don’t think what you want to do is possible. I don’t think sweets will work on wild cherry
Yes they are compatible http://www.fedcoseeds.com/trees/?item=238. Avium is aka Mazzard http://www.davewilson.com/product-information-general/rootstock/cherry. See this article http://extension.oregonstate.edu/wasco/sites/default/files/sweet_cherry_rootstocks_pnw619.pdf. Speaking from experience cherries are hard to graft and last time I did it 50% success was great. That being said that will depend on your wild rootstock since they are genetically unique you may have 100% success or 100% fails or a little of both. Success is not just a factor of compatibility it also is dependent on timing so do not attempt grafts when they are dormant. If you wait until the understock is pushing growth your success rates are much better. They are not like apples and will not be forgiving of being grafted to early.
I stand corrected. When they said wild cherry I was thinking the hardwood black cherry Prunus serotina. I don’t think sweet cherry can be grafted to that
Yes I did mean tree we call here wild cherry as opposed to what we call black cherry where the fruit grows in bunches. I guess I’ll try a few and report on it later this year.
You might read this old gardenweb thread http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1440820/cherry-tree-grafting-prunus-serotina-virginiana. In the thread I was trying to say graft when sap is flowing so once the tree starts to push buds open. Another words don’t wait until it’s 90 or it will cook your grafts.