I just got a North Star cherry tree to replace a dead Montmorency. The Monty dying wasn’t a big surprise, it was a mail order tree that came in horrible shape so it got planted because the whole was already dug.
North Star is supposed to be both hardy and pretty dwarf on its own, yet I always see it on a rootstock. Is this just because it is just easier to propagate that way? I was thinking instead of throwing away a bunch of branches that need pruning that I would try air layering them. Has anybody planted a north star on its own roots?
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Hi Don,
The only own roote cherry I’ve seen for sale is Evans (other than the UnivSask bush cherries). I have a healthy 4 yr own-root Evans (from HoneyberryUSA) that does appear to be growing shorter than the grafted one I had previously. We root grafted a Meteor 2 yrs ago with the hope that it will put out its own roots, but I don’t know how I will know if it does or not. It’s doing fine. Sounds like a good experiment to do an air layer with your new tree and see how it does down the road compared to the grafted one. Hope the North Star does well for you. I’ve thought of growing it but have enough others now. Sue
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Sue have you got any cherries on your Evans yet? i almost bought that one but got the lutowka rose polish cherry instead. if you ever want to swap scion wood to try it next spring let me know. i also have 3 of the romance series and a monty that all fruited for me this spring.
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My north star is on its own root and our community orchard north stars are on their own roots. My Montmorency is on its own roots. I had a meteor on its own roots.
Nice! Did you root them yourself? How do they compare to grafteed ttrees? Sue
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They were purchased from Henry fields (now out of business} I have grown some from seed. The new seed grown Northstar is 3 years old and has not fruited yet but 2 of the 4 Montmorency from seed produces good cherries. The are 5 years old and fruited lightly this year.
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Steve, I had high hopes this year as the tree was in full bloom but we ended May with a 4 night freeze spell, two as low as 22, so that was that except for I see a couple cherries did survive. (Took out my apples in full bloom, too (sigh)). But I had Evans before (grafted) and it did well for me here. I liked it - raccoons got in and tore off a couple branches and did in that tree so I replaced it with the own-root one. The Lutowka does sound interesting. I have a Carmine seedling growing so maybe I could graft to that. I really have plenty of cherries growing now but they’re interesting, and they usually don’t get frozen out. Sue
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hi Sue. all mine we loaded too and i think i lost about half to late frost as well. i havent got any off lutowka as its only 2yrs but maybe i could trade some scions for some of your evans next spring, just to try them. i too have plenty of cherries and cant justify planting any new ones but would be fun to graft on something i dont have. give me a yell next spring in case i forget.