On 2013-08-15 22:52:05 +0100, Bob Hobden said:

"Sacha" wrote

Bob Hobden said:

"Sacha" wrote ...

Bob Hobden said:

"sacha" wrote ...

And I read today that the cherry crop is terrific. There's a dwarf form
planted in a Kent orchard yielding a terrific crop. The form is
'Gisela'.

Gisela 5 is the most dwarfing rootstock for cherries, all our four are
on that rootstock. Strangely Brogdale didn't want us to have the tree
we ordered from them on that rootstock, they said it was too dwarfing
for the garden and best for container grown trees and I had to persuade
them by saying I can't do ladders. All ours are doing very well, I've
had to prune them quite hard this year to keep them within their cage
and we got a reasonable crop (the second year for 2 and third year for
2). Blackfly on the new growth was a serious problem this year.

The orchard I read about growing these watch the ripening like hawks
and move cages over the trees at the appropriate time, so the cages
must be quite a size, I'd think. I don't really understand that about
it being too dwarfing for the garden. Do they mean it spreads more than
it rises, if you see what I mean?!

It keeps the trees smaller in every way except the size of the fruit.
So it makes it much easier to pick the crop, the trees can be closer
together, and they are just easier to deal with, prune and spray etc.
We have 4 under a 6 metre long cage.
If you see an old sweet cherry tree they are huge, we had one down the
road, unfortunately felled to make way for housing, but it was taller
than a two storey house and roof.

Yes indeed. All this makes me wonder why they tried to 'warn' you off
them! I'll be telling the boss about these because I hope some time
will be found this winter to build a fruit cage. We have to find a
drier part of the field though, that's the problem.

If you intend to get some cherries on Gisela 5 rootstock then you need
to chose the variety you want and then look for it on that rootstock,
we ended up having to get our 4 from 3 different places.

I'm *hoping* to, but whether I'll succeed is another matter! Which did
you get because you seem happy with them?
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk