"Rod" wrote ...

, Pam Moorewrote:
"Bob Hobden" wrote:

Ok so the few cherries I left on the two trees have disappeared. Now I
know
the birds will go for them but don't they usually leave you the stalk
with
the stone attached? No stalk or stone anywhere near the trees so have
we got
two legged cherry eaters helping themselves?

A friend of mine reckons her tree has so few friut this year because
of the drought. Can this be so?

It's possible - but the disappearing cherries could be squirrels. At
work we had to resort to replacing the plastic netting on the cage by
wire netting. The trees are on 'Colt' rootstock but the cage is still
huge and the trees get through it and have to be pruned more than we
would like. If I were starting again there is a better rootstock
available 'Giselle' which is dwarfer and makes fan training on a wall
a more reasonable proposition and protection much easier.

Both ours are on Giselle rootstock. Funny thing was I don't think Brogdale
wanted to sell us Lapins Cherokee on that rootstock for planting in the
ground, only for a pot, I had to persuade them we had good enough soil. The
other, Summer Sun, we bought from Blackmoor Nursery without a problem.
Wanted that rootstock because as I'm getting older I don't want to be
climbing ladders to cover them with netting or picking the fruit and
although Colt is a dwarfing rootstock the trees will still get too big for
us.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK