This is an example of an intelligent thread. Everybody had something
important to say and everybody said it well.

"Hettie®" wrote in message
...


Not@home wrote:


I have Montmorency's, as I think they make the best pies, and I don't
have room in the front yard for two trees.

I have heard that, too, so hope mine will be ok. When I made pies with
the NS's, I diluted the juice with water a little because they have high
acid, and everybody loved them. They freeze well and easily and keep
longer than most people keep frozen stuff.


I too have a very small yard, so the place where the old one died is
about the only place to put a new one without removing something else.
Our dwarf Montmorency in the back yard was not affected, which inclines
me to think the cause of death was not a virus.

I would think mine was due to one having been damaged by a teen going
rambunctious, then getting scraped with the mower (it had a bole-like scar
growth at the ground level). But when the other went that wasn't like it,
it was either a virus or they had just reached the end of their life
cycle.


I'm looking at the non dwarf variety, as they say it will be 15 to 20
feet tall, which will nicely shade the porch, and let the birds eat the
fruit at the top, while we enjoy the lower fruit. I have a non-dwarf
Stella in the back, which has done quite well, although it had mold on
the fruit a couple of years ago, which I attribute to inadequate pruning.
My good luck with the non-dwarf Stella is inclining me to try a non-dwarf
Montmorency.

Now that you explain your needs and desires, if that is what you want, it
should be fine. The shade factor is important, much as I love my trees, I
am paying for not having enough sunny spots for my flowers. One must
choose. I didn't think of some of that when I planted many years ago. So
you deal with what is.

Go with the standard and be happy with it. It will look pretty at
blossoming and fruiting time. Bet you wish you had more room, too, but
again we have to deal with what is or get a bigger place which is not a
good option for many of us.

And you may get occasional people asking if they can have some like I did
:-). I had plenty to share because I really didn't NEED that many, just
enjoy watching them do their thing and a few pies to look forward to.




I want to put in a replacement, but not a dwarf. The place we had the
old one is ideal. Is there some reason I wouldn't put the replacement
there next spring, or something I should do to prepare the site?


I wouldn't want anything but a dwarf. They are good producers, at least
mine were, every year, more than I needed, didn't do a thing to them
ever except plant well, water and mulch the first year. I bought two NS
at Home Depot early this spring and planted them a few feet away from
where the others had been, would have gone further if I had had more
space to work with. Then the deep freeze killed all the buds, one was
dead.

So I didn't want to lose a year, they had a warranty, so first made sure
they had something left, dug up and returned the NS and came home with 2
Montmorency. I should have taken more care about the shape of them, but
not much to choose from that were close to the same and looked nice.
Then some bugs or some critter, possibly deer but never saw any in the
yard, ate a bunch of leaves off the one, never had any problem like that
with the NS's that I can remember.

So maybe next spring, I'll dig them out while they are still under
warranty unless they bud out too nicely and go back to NS and probably
bite the bullet and get some nicer ones from a nursery. I saw some huge
NS's at Lowe's, but they were larger than I would have wanted to tackle.

Good luck. You don't need a pair for cross pollination I guess, but I
liked having two.