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Old 03-04-2017, 08:55 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
Jeff Layman[_2_] Jeff Layman[_2_] is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Sep 2008
Posts: 2,166
Default Help needed growing a cherry tree

On 03/04/17 18:21, Charlie Pridham wrote:
On 03/04/2017 13:05, earthstick wrote:
3 years ago I bought a fruiting cherry tree along with an apple.
The apple tree is coming along fantastically but the cherry
refuses to grow any branches.

When it arrived it was shaped like Y and it has remained shaped
like a Y. It gets buds, leave and even a few cherries. The two
branches grow longer but the are no side branches growing.

Last year I tried trimming off every other bud to try and promote
side branches but that didn't work. This year I cut the two
branches down by about a third with the hope that the ends would
grow new branches but it looks like it's just going to bud again.
What if I had let the two branches grow long enough to bend down?
Would it have branched at the bend?

I prune in early March because I have read they are susceptable to
frost damage if pruned earlier.

It is on a vigorous rootstock in a sheltered but sunny space and I
choose a variety that has no special soil type requirements.

One thing I remember is that when I planted it I could not tell
where the soil line had been and guessed. I planted it with the
rootball was a few inches below the soil line. I can see the
graft is probably 4 inches above the soil line now. Could this be
the cause?


The most likely reason is the variety, if its an upright grower then
its doing what its supposed to do, not sure why you would have to
prune a young tree? It only really becomes a problem planting too
deep with trees on dwarfing rootstocks as the more vigorous variety
would take over.

Hopefully a more experienced fruit tree grower will pitch in!


Or even a less experienced one! Is it possible that the graft has
partially failed and the scion is suffering from lack of nutrients from
the root? The OP said that the scion was on a vigorous rootstock. It
doesn't look like that it is behaving like one.

--

Jeff