Topic: Morello cherry tree

[tricia]

My cherry tree is in bloom but only has flowers at the end of some of the branches as can be seen in the photo. I've snipped the ends of 12 of the dead-looking branches and found that seven of them indeed appear to be dead and the other five already show a brown pinhead size brown centre.

What can I do to rejuvenate this 6 -7 year old tree after this year's (hopefully) harvest? and when is the best time to do it?

Tricia

[attachment=1]

[jennym]

I'm afraid I can't see the picture too well on this pc, but in any case, you may find this of help.
Firstly, take out the dead parts - snip off a piece at a time, until you have either cut it all off or have got down to live wood.
Don't worry too much about brown dots in the centre of the wood. Often this is seen on perfectly healthy trees. It is possible that the trees have silver leaf disease, but if the leaves are fine then don't worry.
Morellos will fruit mainly on wood that has grown the previous year (bit like a peach tree does).  (Sweet cherries are a bit different)
So, you need to encourage fresh shoots to grow along the branches, as these will be the ones that flower and fruit next year.
If you snip off fresh growth at the end of this year, you won't get flowers and fruit next year.
The sort of pruning I do with Morellos after the main branchwork has developed is to remove shoots along the branches that have fruited that year - it's easier to do this when you can see where the cherries were.
Then, the shoots that grow freshly during the summer need looking at, if they are too overcrowded take a few out. Leave the rest alone - they'll mature and fruit the next year.
You can tidy up anything that gets damaged over winter in the following late spring, as you are now.

[chriscross1966]

On a similar subject.... I'm planning on getting a Morello or two if they can be grown as a low espalier against a north-facing fence, though in some places it might be lattice-work fencing so they'll have a south facing side on the neighbours side..... I don't want them to be too deep though, I can let them have 18 inches, maybe two feet if I'm lucky..... does that smell like a plan?....

THe other thign I want to put along that boundary is blackrthorn (have discussed with neighbours and they were OK with it, thoguh they're complete townies so I don't know if they realise how thorny blackthorn can be.... I'll try and get bullaces and train them, lots less thorns and the fruits a bit sweeter.... damson's will just be ravaged by birds without protection (I can do that for the cherries on the sold bits of fencing but it would be a bit ugly on the lattice bits....


chrisc

[Spudbash]

chrisscross, from the various bullace trees I've seen over the years (eg at Wisley), ones that have been pruned are viciously thorny, whereas ones left to their own devices in the hedgerow for years on end were comparatively peaceable at the mature stage at which I saw them. (I wonder if the thorniness is a defence mechanism.)

Bullace branches can get very long, so I wonder whether it might be worth thinking about guiding them in an upward direction, without pruning them? They might take a long time to fruit, though.

I once had an interesting conversation with a fruit breeder, who said there's no reason why bullaces couldn't be interbred with other plums with the same flowering period, to create a late-fruiting plum to go with apples and pears. Are there any amateur fruit breeders out there wanting to take on the challenge?

As for morello cherry trees, jennym's advice echoes what I've been reading lately. As for planting depth, I'm afraid I can't help. However, a friend of mine planted a morello against a north-facing brick wall and fan-trained it, with great success: It fruited far better than my one has managed so far, in its sunny, open position.

Good luck, fellow fruit fans!  ;D

[chriscross1966]

Thanks spudbash.... hadn't realised about the thoirniness increasing with pruning.... I can';t be doing with themn as trees they're too large....wonder if I could graft it onto a dwarfing plum rootstock?

chrisc

[tricia]

Thanks for the advice Jennym and Spudbash. I've been out with the loppers and have removed a lot of dead wood. Now, hopefully, the other branches will start to produce leaves!

Tricia

[jennym]

On a similar subject.... I'm planning on getting a Morello or two if they can be grown as a low espalier .....

They're not really suitable for growing as espaliers, because of the cutting out of the old shoots each year, they look quite messy, but if you dont mind that then fine. Fan trained cherries sort of disguise this.

[Digeroo]

Just shows the variations in temperature my morello still in bud.  It is more than 20 years old and still not much bigger than yours.  Every few years it seems to have a major die back.  The last time it produced a lot of new growth about a foot from the ground which I am very pleased about.    I grew beans up it and it may have liked the deposit of compost.

Previous nieghbour hated it and attacked regularly as he was worried it would get too big, but fortunately present ones like it.   

I had two others which also did a die back once too often and both actually totally died. 

[Spudbash]

chrisscross, I've never heard of anyone grafting a morello onto a dwarfing rootstock - perhaps you'll be the first!  :)

[gamesetetc]

my morello (or maybe it's stella can't remember actually) has not bloomed, so I fear it is dead.  I've scraped back a couple of small sections of bark and have revealed green underneath.  Am I just impatient?  I'm in glasgow, UK.  Pretty sure you can get morello and stella on dwarfing root stocks at homebase btw

[superspud]

I hate Cherry Tree's, I have two humoungus ones in my front garden, their in full bloom now, and its a mess, around 20 or more feet tall and LARGE, all they do is leave me with moss everywhere and their covered in some green flaky crud, I wish everyone in the village would come and lop a branch of to grow in their own homes, then I would cut it down and board it up so I can make a nice table or such. I have no idea what Cherry it is but often wonder.

[chriscross1966]

chrisscross, I've never heard of anyone grafting a morello onto a dwarfing rootstock - perhaps you'll be the first!  :)

Not the morello, you can get that oin Giselle 5 which is fairly dwarfing and good for fans/esapliers.... doesn't have to be pretty, I don't really do pretty...... (my avatar pic is a big improvement over me without the mask on for starters),,,,I was talking about the Bullace... a dwarfing bullace would be cool.....

[Spudbash]

Yes, I meant a dwarf bullace - I just wrote 'morello' to keep us all guessing!  ;D ;D

Good luck with it. I'll be interested to know how you get on.