Juliet Cherry

what substrate do you use in your bed?

Compost (we have a midsized Jersey and a mini horse besides the chickens, plus we get wood chips dumped on the property, so we are able to make a lot each year), perlite, and we had a bunch of rice hulls so they went in there too last spring. This particular bed is 3 or 4 years old, and each year I add about 4 inches of compost mixed with perlite and a thick layer of leaves and/or hay to the top to mulch what ever I stick in it in the fall.

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Here’s a photo of the bed:

That was taken before I mulched it was leaves the day before yesterday. I normally mulch before planting anything in that box… it was tedious mulching in between those cuttings. I won’t mulch with leaves after I stick again. lol

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I noticed three more Juliet suckers that are about 24 to 30" tall. The suckering looks like it might be come a problem after a while. If I didn’t mow I could see these spreading out in about ten years to a wide spread area.

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One of the reasons I wanted to graft my prune plum to a Nanking cherry was that the prune suckered like crazy and the Nanking cherry did not. That worked nicely - might be worth a try for you. And I’m sure the Juiliet and Nanking cherry will be compatible. Here’s more on that:

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A chance it could lose it’s dwarfness, I guess Nanking is dwarf-like too. If Juliet is grafted unto regular stock it will grow just like a Montmorency tree. It’s strange, it’s own roots dwarf it.

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Interesting thought. I think, from what Lucky P has said, that some things will dwarf on tomentosa more than others. With my prune plum you can see the battle play out between the rootstock and the top growth - it looks like the rootstock is preventing the top growth from over-growing it, and I imagine the top isn’t feeding the roots as well as the natural top would. I suppose there is just enough incompatability to maintain a more or less healthy balance. It’s a working marriage, if not an exuberant one!

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Ha! :slight_smile: Yeah a user here bought some of the Canadian dwarfs grafted and they all grew super tall! It looks like a different cherry. I guess it’s the Mongolian cherry genes as that plant is a small bush. They used the Mongolian and tart cherries to make this cross. Then refined and crossed and recrossed. Seventy years later the Romance series was released. Yes, this program started that long ago and was shelved for a long time. Those original crosses with Mongolian were used and crossed again till that got Carmine Jewel, the Romance series and Wowza. More unknown selections are probably licensed to Gardens Alive. I found online a statement about the U. of Sas. licensing the American company to release the Romance series and Carmine in the USA. A few unnamed cultivars were also thrown in. Wowza is the first unknown released. I was gifted one, then ran it over with the lawn mower, it’s still alive but I lost a year’s growth. Starting over this season. It’s 6 inches tall right now :slight_smile:

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the U of Sask. cherries supposedly grow to 6ft. in z2 but 12ft. in z4. wonder how big Clarks are in z6? I’m going to try and keep my montmorency like a bush but that may be futile as its very vigorous.

Did you ever end up trying Mahaleb with Juliet?

I have not i just replaced 5 juliets this year.

Replace? What happened? I was thinking about putting juliet or CJ on mahaleb, wondering if that would boost production.

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They will get extremely large like a normal tree.

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Imma ok with that. It’ll be a bush cherry in a traditional cherry tree form. >_<

Why did you replace 5 Juliets though? Replace Juliets with what?

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I replaced Juliets with Juliets the trees they sent me were small and spindly so i had a backup plan and @39thparallel also planted some out for me in nearby lawrence kansas in better soil. The small juliets could not handle the weather so im growing larger ones this year.

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The Canadian series will only stay dwarf if on it’s own roots. If you graft it it will grow huge and lose dwarfism. All of them AFAIK. Plus Juliet is not that dwarf as is. Mine is growing very large, but in bush form.

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It also really seems like you want them on there own roots for renewal pruning. Being in a area with heavy snap frosts the thought that if my stuff freezes to the ground and will grow back is a huge plus

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Im going to try some carmine jewell on mahalab and will let you all know how it goes.

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That was my plan actually. CJ first.

Isn’t montmorency naturally dwarfing on its own roots? On mahaleb it makes a nice tree. CJ and Juliet should be similar effect I would think.

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I have a cj planted on gisela in z4a 8300’ Colorado Windy mountain top. It produced a few cherries its first year and so far looks to be happy (wont be out of winter there till june), growth is obviously slow.

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