I have several large diamerter 24"+ wild black cherries that I an thinking about taking down to saw lumber on my sawmill. I was thinking I could time this late winter early spring and graft some large diameter cherry scions onto the stumps.
My wild black cherry trees I want to harvest for lumber are a lot larger diameter than what is shown in the following video
Please share your thoughts, thanks.
I tried it and your video came up 2nd. Yours is a great video
When I ran fence for cattle this wild black cherry was in the way. Instead of cutting it down, I used my chainsaw and cut a slit in the butt for the feild fence to pass through. This is what grew on the other side of the fence. The cattle like the shade and to rub the trunk that’s inside the fence. They also nibble a bit at the new growth out side the fence.
I’m going to prune it for multiple stella grafts. I guess the way I look at it is I wont know if wild black cherry would be a suitable rootstock for stella if I dont atleast try it.
Any thoughts or experiences would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
I have lots of wild black cherry here… including a few in the edge of the woods… off my back yard that have limbs that hang out over my back yard and when the fruit is ripe… it just dangles there.
I like to eat them… a dark tart lil sweet taste… similar to elderberry.
I dont eat the pits though.
Did you know it is dangerous to have the leaves where livestock can eat them ?
Per google…
Yes, wild black cherry leaves can be poisonous to livestock. For example, 1.2 to 4.8 pounds of wilted black cherry leaves can be a lethal dose for a 1,200 pound dairy cow.
Amazingly fast… the single cleft grafted bing scion broke bud after approx 48 hours. Nothing from the 4 cleft grafted Stella’s yet though.
It is truly amazing to see the fast budding. What is the black tar looking thing on the graft site? It doesn’t look like buddy tape.
It’s treekote over parafilm.
It says water soluble. so if it rains it will be washed away. Do you cover that area if it rains?
I found this item and looks great. Have you tried this? Amazon.com The cost is almost the same.
I’m new to grafting this is just my second season. I have not tried the bondie pruning sealer product yet. My experice (limited)…Treekote once dry (after about 2 hours) is no longer water soluble and creates a very good seal. It also seems brittle enough to allow buds to break through. Tip… wait for treekote to dry before trying to get it out of your beard 
I’ve thought about this as well, so I’ll be curious to see how it progresses.
Anecdotally, the prunus serotina I have access to seem more susceptible to black knot than the few prunus americana nearby. Then again, there are also some healthy black cherries pushing 60 or 70 feet tall so that’s a good sign…just gonna need a scissorlift to harvest.
I feel like you missed the cheat code of grafting: wrap it in Parafilm.
If the sun hits it hard I’d also wrap it in a sheet of newspaper, masking tape it on, and fold the end to keep bugs out.
God Bless!
Jesus Christ is King!
Hopefully it worked, but budding unfortunately is not a sign of grafting success, they shouhave enough sugar and water in them to bud and if they have fruiting wood also produce flowers with no energy or water from the new tree, but good healthy leaves will tell you the graft is working!
I’ll grafts failed on this attempt. I will try again late winter next year. It got to hot to fast, bad timing on my behalf.
Atha ks for the reply
If it is prunus serotina you are grafting to, I think the general consensus on here was that it wasn’t compatible with prunus avium or prunus cerasus. If a graft does take it will already be on borrowed time. I hope someone discovers a good interstem species to make it all work out.
Mirabelle seems like the best, and Krymsk86 is a hybrid rootstock widely compatible, I would try that and perhaps it would be possible to graft cherries on that.
(my “Mirabelle” might be a bush plum-Myrobalan)
I once tried a few sweet cherries onto Prunus serotina. Only one took. It grew 6 to 8 inches, then stood still. Survived only 2 or 3 years, with no significant further growth, then died.
