North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

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]