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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] short life in sweet cherries

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  • From: Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] short life in sweet cherries
  • Date: Fri, 07 May 2010 14:03:02 -0400

Commercial growers generally plant both sweet and sour cherries on deep, well-drained usually sandy soil, especially here in the Niagara Peninsula. Vineland Station's old rootstock publication warned that Mahaleb was only to be used on a deep, well-drained, "gravelly" subsoil - interesting because here we usually have clay a couple of metres under the Vineland fine sandy loam.

Fruit trees are usually propagated for the orchard market, and retailers buy more of the same. Research stations do research and issue instructions primarily for the commercial growers. I don't think many fruit trees are propagated specifically for the home grower market, and few of those with cultivar and rootstock combinations to suit. Nurseries, especially the mass market types and garden centres, sell what their customers want to buy. Relabelling deliberately for the sake of sales is something that I have personally encountered.

Look around a garden centre and assess the size of the fruit plant section in relation to the whole. It's usually pretty small. Finding information about the home fruit grower's needs and incorporating it in the product is a complicated, expensive, tedious, locally oriented, limited-market sort of business. It's not the best way to get rich.

People who buy fruit trees for their yards are usually blanking ignorant. I get the impression that most sellers do not have a high opinion of them. This does not make for a healthy relationship.

Let the buyer beware. There are some nurseries around who try to do their best for you. Seek them out and give them your business.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada


Melissa Kacalanos wrote:
Hm. Good to know. I planted two sweet cherries on mahaleb in my heavy clay soil last year. Since mahaleb seemed to be a very popular rootstock, I didn't think much about it.

[snip]




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