Small Cherry Tree

[grannygrumps]

I would like to buy a cherry tree, which will stay compact, but give a good amount of fruit. The preference is for dark cherries, for eating, rather than cooking.  Self pollinating would also be preferable. 
Does anyone have any recommendations as to what is the best variety to buy, or what to avoid. Thanks.

[grannygrumps]

[martinburo]

I can't be of much help, but the previous owner of my house planted a cherry on a dwarfing rootstock, and even after I've lived there for three years, the tree is less than 2m high and produces about 20 cherries per year, and it doesn't seem to be increasing. I think it's a Morello. So I bought another cherry tree from ART last winter on a Colt rootstock, and hope it will produce more cherries than that in due course.
http://www.agroforestry.co.uk/plantorders.html

[manicscousers]

Hiya, grannygrumps, welcome to a4a  ;D
We have a stella and a sunburst, both on dwarfing rot stock.The sunburst isn't bothered by black fly as much as the stella.
We have just planted a dual cherry, again on a dwarfing root stock, one is a yellow one, I can't remember the varieties.  :)
BTW, we bought our first from Victoriana nursery  :)

[saddad]

Gisela is the "best" : smallest rooting stock.. I have a Summer Sun and Sunburst on them in the ground...  :-X

[gwynleg]

I brought two cherry trees as cordons they are sweetheart and summer sun. They are from Pomona but I dont know what sort of root stock they are.

I was going to grow them on 45 degree angle but looking on the internet this doesnt seem such a good idea - in fact much of what I have seen suggests cherries as cordons are not a great idea....!!

Any information/advice gratefully received!
Thanks

[goodlife]

Gwynleg..your research is about right..unfortunately growing cherries..or any other stone fruit as cordon is a bit tricky. The trouble is that they fruit on bit older wood and keeping the tree in cordon shape they need regular pruning..and that brings another trouble too..they don't like pruning that much.
With regular pruning you need to insure that you leave enough growth on to produce fruit and there need to be good supply of new growth near the trunk too to keep the tree compact .
All the stone fruits are very prone to weeping from cut surfaces so that limits how much you are able to do in one go without damaging the tree.
If you are very skilled with secateurs...it can be done..but your crops are going to be very limited for what the trees would produce if trained differently.
Fan trained cherries would do much better than cordon..but again..pruning needs to be done carefully.

[gwynleg]

Thanks Goodlife. Would I be better off a) growing in the ground but not pruning (will it get too big?, or b) growing in a big dustbin to restrict growth that way?
I have some space but not for  full size trees!

[saddad]

The Gisella 5 rootstock keeps it down to about 3M  :)

[goodlife]

Code Select Expand

Would I be better off ... Without knowing the rootstock difficult to say..I tried growing my cherry (with drawfing rootstock) in LARGE container..and it wasn't happy no matter how much I tried look after it. Yes it did grow...but it never had any strenght to produce fruit.
How about if you give a call to pomona..ask them what root stock they've used..and then we can 'talk' what to do.. ;)

[gwynleg]

Finally found time to phone pomona - the cherry trees are on Giselle 5 rootstock. Good life or others - I would be really grateful for ideas on planting/growing as per previous post. I have an 8 by 8ft bed that I was intending to use (but have two cherries and a pear......currently in cordon form but not yet planted.

thanks!!

[gwynleg]

Bump!

[goodlife]

I'm here..
Ok..your bed is big enough for those 3.
What I would do..is grow the pear as cordon..that's reasonably easy..plant that on front=sunny side of the bed as it is going to be smallest of the 3 and will not shade the cherries.
As for cherries..I would not even attempt to do cordon..plant them as far apart as bed allow and grow them as 'bush' trees. As they shoot up..instead of pruning...weigh some of the branches down with strings and pegs..that will encourage the tree to fruit in early years much more heavily and will also restrict the growth a little..thus keeping the size down...that way you only need to prune if and when there is some damage or other unwanted growth on.

[gwynleg]

Goodlife you are a star. Thanks so much for this - am going to try to do this tomorrow - weather permitting!!

[goodlife]

 Here is little video about tying fruit trees..it done to the apple but you can do it to cherry too, maybe quite not drastically as is done in here..http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3580630/festooning_trees_espalier/

[goodlife]

Forgot to add..just plant the trees as normal now and don't do any pruning or tying down yet.
You would be looking to bend the young bendy growth next summer at earliest...depending how much growth they put on..or not..you might not need to do anything to the cherries in first year.

[sunloving]

Hi
Just to mention i grow two stellas against a fence in a fan shape this means i can tie them in and prune out the bulk making shoots but still have lots of branches trained on the fence. They get longer and more branched over time and have ben fabulous fruiters so really a bit of tieing in and careful pruning would be alright to.

Just have to guard the lower 3 feet from those cheeky chickens who jump up to get them ;D

I got mine from Aldi they were around 3.99.
x sunloving

[chriscross1966]

I got a Stella and a Morello from Aldi/Lidl last year... I did have two of each but one of each died in the horrific winter last year (they were in big pots in my veranda at the time. The Morello that made it out last spring seems to be thriving on the north side of a fence, the Stella, planted in the open took a while to get going adn did look a bit sad until I really beefed up the watering campaign....

I'm thinking of putting a permanent fruit sectioin into the lottie , I have some old scaffolding to build a fruit cage out of but it's a bit "industrial" for home....