Gadenin日本語Get the appThe rootstock decides whether you ever pick a crop
Everything else about growing cherries in a garden follows from one decision made on planting day. A cherry on a seedling or vigorous rootstock reaches 25 to 30 feet (8 to 9 m) and keeps going. Nobody nets a tree that size, and an unnetted cherry belongs to the birds. You will watch a full crop color up over two weeks and lose it in a single morning.
A dwarfing or semi-dwarfing rootstock holds the tree at 8 to 12 feet (2.5 to 3.5 m) with annual pruning. That is a height you can throw a net over from a stepladder, which means it is the only height at which a garden cherry reliably produces fruit you eat. Treat the rootstock as the fruiting decision, not a convenience.
The trade is that dwarfing stocks have weaker, shallower root systems. They need permanent staking, they will not tolerate competition from grass at the trunk, and they suffer earlier in drought. Accept those three obligations up front and the size control is worth it several times over.
| Rootstock vigor | Mature height | Spacing | Nettable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dwarfing | 8-10 ft (2.5-3 m) | 10 ft (3 m) | Yes, with a frame |
| Semi-dwarfing | 10-14 ft (3-4 m) | 14 ft (4 m) | Yes, at a stretch |
| Semi-vigorous | 15-20 ft (4.5-6 m) | 20 ft (6 m) | No |
| Vigorous / seedling | 25-30 ft (8-9 m) | 30 ft (9 m) | No |
If a tree is already in the ground on a vigorous stock, do not try to dwarf it by hard pruning. Heavy cuts on a cherry provoke both regrowth and disease. Grow it as a shade tree and plant a second tree on a dwarfing stock for fruit.
Choose a position with morning sun and moving air
Cherries want full sun, at least six hours through the growing season, and they want the site to dry quickly after rain. Blossom, ripening fruit and leaves all rot in still, damp air, so an open aspect with air moving through the canopy is worth more than a sheltered corner. A position that catches the early sun dries the tree soonest after a dewy night.
Avoid frost pockets. Cherry blossom opens early, ahead of most tree fruit, and a hollow that collects cold air on a clear night will cost you the entire crop at petal fall. A slight slope, or ground with somewhere for cold air to drain away downhill, is markedly safer than the bottom of a walled garden.
Soil matters more for cherries than for most fruit. They will not tolerate waterlogging: roots sitting in wet soil through winter invite root death and bacterial canker at the base. If your soil holds water after heavy rain, plant on a raised mound 12 inches (30 cm) high and 4 feet (1.2 m) across rather than digging a hole that acts as a sump.
Planting, step by step
Plant while the tree is dormant and the soil is workable, from leaf fall to the point where buds begin to swell. A bare-root tree planted early in dormancy roots before growth starts and needs far less watering in its first summer than a container tree planted late.
- Drive the stake before the tree goes in A stake driven after planting goes through the roots. Put it in first, 18 inches (45 cm) deep, offset about 6 inches (15 cm) from where the trunk will stand, on the side the prevailing wind comes from. Dwarfing rootstocks need this stake permanently, not for the first two years only.
- Dig wide, not deep Make the hole two to three times the width of the roots and no deeper than the roots themselves. Loosen the sides with a fork so roots are not turning in a glazed pit. Do not add manure to the bottom of the hole: it settles, the tree sinks, and the graft union ends up buried.
- Keep the graft union above soil level The union is the swollen kink low on the trunk. It must sit at least 4 inches (10 cm) clear of the finished soil surface. Bury it and the scion roots into the soil above the graft, the rootstock stops controlling size, and you lose the dwarfing you paid for.
- Backfill with the soil you removed Firm it in layers with your heel, not in one go. Rich imported compost in the hole discourages roots from leaving it. Water in thoroughly, 4 to 5 gallons (15-20 liters), to settle soil around the roots and drive out air pockets.
- Tie low and clear the grass Fit a single tie in the lower third of the trunk so the top can flex. Then clear a grass-free circle 3 feet (1 m) across around the trunk and mulch it, keeping mulch off the bark itself. Grass at the base of a dwarf cherry measurably reduces growth.
Build the net support at planting, not at first fruit
The mistake almost everyone makes is planting the tree, waiting three years, then discovering at the first proper crop that there is no practical way to cover it. Set four posts at the corners of the tree's eventual spread when you plant, even if they look absurd around a whip. Netting a tree from a permanent frame takes fifteen minutes; improvising one over a fruiting tree takes a weekend and always leaves gaps.
Size the frame to the mature spread from the table above plus 18 inches (45 cm) of clearance all round. Netting draped directly onto foliage lets birds sit on the net and peck through it, and it snags on spurs when you pull it off. The frame is what makes the difference between a net that works and a net that only appears to.
Write down the rootstock, the planting position and the graft union height in your records the day you plant. Three years later, when the tree is growing faster or slower than you expected, that note is the only way to tell whether you actually got the rootstock you ordered.
The first two years
Water a newly planted cherry through its first two summers whenever the top 2 inches (5 cm) of soil are dry, giving 4 gallons (15 liters) at a time rather than a daily sprinkle. Dwarfing roots are shallow and a young tree can die of drought in a week of heat while the leaves still look acceptable.
Remove any blossom in the first spring after planting. It feels wasteful, but fruit set on a tree that has not built a root system stunts it for years. From the second spring let it crop lightly and give it the full net treatment from the first fruit, so the birds never learn that your garden contains cherries.