North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Steven Covacci <filtertitle@aol.com>]

I bought a 'Black Gold' sweet cherry on Gisela-12.   I have nutrient-rich 
clay soil that is always moist.


My other sweet cherries [Benton and White Gold] are on Gisela-6.  For some 
reason, almost all of the nurseries had 'Black Gold' on G.12; maybe there is 
a reason for this.  But I am now concerned that G.12 is a little bit more 
disease-prone than G.6 has demonstrated to be; and may require anchoring, 
whereas G.6 would be less needing of anchoring. 


For my clay/moist soil, would you recommend that I top-graft a spare extra 
sweet cherry on G.6 that I have in a bucket with scionwood from my 'Black 
Gold' (which I currently have on G.12) and give away my 'Black Gold' on G.12.


Or do you think that:
1. Black Gold is best on G.12, which is why most nurseries seem to have it on 
this Gisela stock variety.
2. The amount of disease-susceptibility is too negligible to worry about.
3. The clay soil will be equally handled by both G.12 and G.6.


A separate topic, but related: I bet that top grafting a variety UPON a 
variety which is itself UPON a rootstock would result in a bit of an 
additional dwarfing effect due to, now, two graft unions, as I feel that each 
union confers an ammount of dwarfing by virtue of a minute amount of 
tolerated incompatibility. 


Thanks,
Steve; NJ