Q. I have two cherry trees and one needs to pollinate the
other. Can I plant both trees in the same hole so save space? The trees grow to 20 feet and I will keep
them pruned to a smaller size.
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| Sweet cherries produced at the Orchard. Production is erratic in the Las Vegas Valley. |
A. Yes, you can. Plant them about 18 inches apart, one on
the east side and one on the west side of the hole. Try to pick varieties that
are similar in vigor (how strong they grow) and on the same variety of
rootstock.
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| Multiple apple trees planted in a single hole at Dave Wilson Nursery |
I will warn
you that sweet cherries are squirrely in our hot desert environment. They
produce cherries in some microenvironments and not in others. They usually seem
to do better in backyards that are somewhat protected (no strong winds) and
have a more humid environment during pollination.
If you
plant these two trees together, keep them occupying only half of the canopy. Do
not let them compete with each other but keep them occupy their own, separate
spaces. This means there will be a clear physical separation between the plants
in their own half circle of canopy space. Also, do not let one get bigger than
the other. Keep them pruned to a similar size.
These
cherries must also bloom at the same time if they are to pollinate one another.
Check your pollination charts to make sure they are compatible.
My experiences with cherries in Phoenix (year two) is Colt rootstock survives (Stella, Coral Champagne, Brooks, Royal Lee and Minnie Royal) while Mahaleb and Mazzard rootstock died of Cotton root rot (aka Texas root rot or Ozonium) in mid-June.
ReplyDeleteThis years plantings include Tulare on Colt and Royal Lee, Minnie Royal and Lapins on the new Z-dwarf (aka 3CR178 or Newroot-1). I honestly didn't think this would be good in the desert since it is dwarfing rootstock. But holy c**p it is vigorous growing at twice the rate of the other rootstocks I tried. So it seems at home with the soil. Just went over 100F starting the past two days so we will see about summer survival but I have high hopes now that Z-dwarf will be the southwest desert rootstock of the future.
Please note that of the cheery cultivars I have listed all but Minnie Royal and Royal Lee should be considered experimental for Phoenix as only these latter two have chill hour requirements under 300. Since Las Vegas gets more chills you'd stand a better chance with them from that perspective. As long as they don't blossom too soon for your early spring season I would probably consider these two for your hole. [I also believe any Royal will likely be in the 400 chill hour range and will be planting some next year to test. There are a few other <400 chill potential cultivars as well...I keep a list as I come across published papers.]
Hi, can you provide an update on the Minnie and Royal Lee? Excited to hear how they've done in the Vegas heat
DeleteSome people are encouraging las vegas valley residents to plant them. I am still on the fence. April Asher and her blog Artistic Gardener is encouraging the planting of these low chill cherries https://artisticgardener.wordpress.com/tag/bare-root/
DeletePersonally, I am not convinced it is a chilling problem. I think it may be a humidity problem. At the University orchard for the 12 years I had over 8 varieties of cherries they flowered every year but no fruit. Then when there were wet springs for the past three years there was fruit. The same with the Hachiya persimmon. i am still not recommending sweet cherries at all for our valley until I see some production during dry springs with a low humidity (under about 30%). I think sweet cherries, like Hachiya persimmon, may have trouble setting fruit at very low numidity. This is also true of fruit some tropical fruit trees. I have both of these cherries planted now for two years at the Ahern Orchard and we will see how they do. This past year Montmorency sour cherry produced fruit.
I might add, there are yards where sweet cherries produce fruit nearly every year. These are residences where there is a lawn or swimming pool near the cherries.
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