North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Doug Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

I think you will find that sour cherries are compatible on mazzard 
stock, I I wouldn't be surprised if that applies to Evans.

My memory says that sours,and cherries in general, are propagated on 
Mazzard for heavier soils and on Mahaleb for deep well-drained 
(especially gravelly) subsoils.

If the tests on Evans on rootstocks were done in the Edmonton area (i.e. 
near its point of origin) I doubt that Mazzard was used because I don't 
think it's anywhere near cold-hardy at Edmonton. Edmonton is Zone 3, 
Mazzard is hard put to survive let alone fruit in Zone 5, except in very 
sheltered situations such as just above the lakeshore on the south shore 
of Georgian Bay.

If you don't want to buy Mazzard stocks you might try seedlings of your 
sweets - same species.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario



Donna &/or Kieran wrote:
> Lucky wrote:
>   
> > Would it be compatible with sweet cherry, avium, as a rootstock? 
> > Everything I've seen written about it indicates that it does not 
> > survive/perform as a grafted specimen, regardless of the rootstock(though I 
> > suppose on its own seedlings, it might.
> >     
>
> I hadn't heard about this.  Now I'm getting curious about it's background. 
> It has weird succulent feeling leaves totally unlike my sweet cherries or 
> any plums I have, including cerasifera.  (Aren't myrobalans cerasifera?) 
> The local sour cherries I have have fairly similar feeling leaves.  I bought 
> a Montmorency that's not doing so well, it has leaves that feel the same but 
> the bark on it is so slick and shiny I wonder if it could be an ornamental 
> cherry instead.  Looks nothing like the bark on my sour cherries.  The Evans 
> are still too small to tell much about bark.  (after some 4 years or so 
> they've been in the ground, don't think they like the soil too well here) 
> All of my sour cherries have grown slowly, some close to the garden so I 
> really think they have no excuse except some lack in the clay soil.  The own 
> root sweet cherries have grown quite well, are bigger than anything else I 
> have planted except for the chinese chestnuts.
>     The thing about cherry rootstocks is that they ususally use maleheb, 
> another species altogether.  Supposedly fine for sour cherry but not too 
> good for sweet cherry even in the best of soils.  The notion is that the 
> maleheb will offer some dwarfing for the sweets.  The trouble with sweet 
> cherries is they want to grow straight up, and a dwarfing stock won't stop 
> that tendency.  Sour cherries though make a nice shaped smallish tree, there 
> is really no reason why they need to be on a rootstock for dwarfing 
> purposes.  As for suckering tendencies, mow them.      Donna
>
>
>