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nafex - RE: [NAFEX] Sweet cherry report.

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  • From: "Brungardt, Sam" <Sam.Brungardt@state.mn.us>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [NAFEX] Sweet cherry report.
  • Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 10:13:47 -0500

Title: Message
Jerry, could you please tell us all where you are located or at least in which USDA Hardiness Zone?  Thanks. -- Sam Brungardt, St. Paul, Minn. (USDA Hardiness Zone 4b)
 
-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Jwlehman@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 10:02 AM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [NAFEX] Sweet cherry report.

Hello all,

We have picked about 7 gallon of wonderful (at least by our standards) sweet cherries. The cultivar is Galaxy and on MxM60 rootstock. The tree is about 20 feet high and we picked them by using the loader on our tractor. Barb moved me around the tree while I picked. Took about 3 hours. May was 1.49 inches below average rain fall. No cracking. Brown rot was a minimal problem. Neither of these afflictions are severe problems normally, but this year even less. Biggest problem is birds.

The tree is about 15 years old, purchased from Hilltop in Michigan. MxM60 is a hybrid rootstock of Mazzard X Mahaleb and is supposed to be more tolerant of heavy clay soil than either Mazzard or Mahaleb, which is what I'm on here. I purchased 3 trees on MxM60 and this one is very healthy. No rotting wood which is quite normal for sweet cherries. Tree is basically central leader.

I also purchased a yellow sweet cherry which is long gone. Rootstock seemed OK, but fungus got in the wood and the tree declined by rot. The other tree, a Montmorency type sour cherry is in severe decline and this is it's last year, I'm sure. Hope to get a few cherries from it. However the rootstock seems to be OK and hope to graft the sprouts it is sending up. In both cases I believe the MxM60 rootstock did it's job in this heavy clay soil. 

Trees on either Mazzard or Mahaleb in the past never lived long enough to get a good crop. My experience is this hybrid is an improvement over both.

In my opinion the flavor of Galaxy not as good as Bing, but good and dark red in color.  The fruit doesn't ripen all at once as I'd like, but we picked the entire crop and usually do to save them from the birds. Barb is canning them (hot water bath method) as I write this.

Jerry




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