I picked up an Utah giant cherry earlier this year and it’s a pretty good size already, and it has buds all along the branches.
The rootstock is an impressive thickness and the tree is taller than me by about a foot.
I wondered if the nursery had it more than 1 season because of its size.
I had driven 100 miles each way to go to this nursery as they were the only place I could find Toka plum. I never leave with only what I meant to get somehow.
It has an open center with 3 tall lead branches.
Will this cherry tree get huge? I wonder if I should cut the 3 leaders down a bit……
I have no idea what will happen between me and cherries here but I aim to find out. Hopefully I’ll have good luck with some of them.
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Have you seen this.
https://treefruit.wsu.edu/web-article/cherry-rootstocks/
Mahaleb is pretty much a standard-size rootstock.
One of the issues I face re. growing cherry is bird damage. The taller the tree is, the harder to protect against birds will be.
If not prune,
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Thank you for the link.
I am thinking about letting it get huge. Maybe I could wrap around the bottom half and let birds have the top. Hmmmm.
Here are my other cherrys with rootstock:
Craig’s Crimson on Mazzard
Bing on Mazzard
Black Tartarian on Mahaleb
Black Pearl on Krymsk
I read that Craig Crimson is naturally dwarf, so maybe it won’t get that big even though it’s on Mazzard.
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Don’t always believe what you read. My friend bought a “compact” Stella, which is supposed to be semi-dwarf.
20 ft later, she gives up and let the birds have it. Cherry trees can grow 30-40 ft.
It is not just birds, in most places your need to spray for diseases and bugs.
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