[nafex] Re: Hardy Cherries

[dwoodard@becon.org]

--- In nafex@egroups.com, Claude Jolicoeur <cjoli@g...> wrote:
 
> My soil is mainly sandy with about a foot of organic topsoil, 
drainage is
> good, not much clay. ...5 ft snow cover... Also, the site is well 
protected against cold North winds. 
> 
> My cherry trees are not vigorous, but they survive - I have a 15 
year old
> Montmorency and a Meteor. They are affected by this gumming 
sickness, but I
> don't know if it is the lack of vigour that render them susceptible 
to the
> sickness or vice-versa. I also planted an Evans last year - it is 
too soon
> to know how it will do. Wild P.virginiana and P.pensylvanica strive
> everywhere around the orchard.

If you have the space and money I suggest that you try Michurin sour 
cherry, available from Ken Taylor and possibly from other nurseries 
in Quebec. I imagine that it originated with Michurin at Michurinsk 
(now again Kozlov) which I think has a climate similar to Ottawa.
I believe it was propagated from the Vineland collection (the sour 
cherries have since been moved) where it was known as Fruchtbare von 
Michurin; I believe it came via the USA and Germany.

Ken Taylor told me that his Michurin had cropped heavily every year 
for more than ten years including 1994 after the famous test winter, 
on his high exposed ridge (admittedly on sand). His Meteor and North 
Star, growing in a more sheltered location, low near the lakeshore, 
not only were severely damaged and did not crop that year but had not 
recovered from damage suffered in an earlier and milder winter. The 
classical Montmorency did not survive test winters with Ken. He says 
that Michurin is a small dwarf tree growing to about 3 metres 
unpruned if I recall rightly, a morello like North Star and I 
understand Evans/Bala (dark juice, as opposed to Montmorency and 
Meteor which are amarelles with light coloured juice). Bala is the 
name under which Bill MacKently of St. Lawrence Nurseries, New York 
State sold Evans in the past.

A lady cherry researcher at a Michigan university reported that 
Michurin bloomed nine days after Montmorency.  The late Henri Bernard 
reported that Michurin seemed to him somewhat more disease resistant 
than Montmorency. Ken and Henri said that Michurin was markedly 
sweeter than Montmorency and could be eaten fresh with pleasure 
(although I also enjoy Montmorency fresh when they are dead ripe).

I would like to see several people in cold areas grow both Evans/Bala 
and Michurin and report on their relative merits and weaknesses. 
Also, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that they are the 
same, and this ought to be checked out.

For comparison, there used to be a commercial sour cherry planting, 
mostly Montmorency with a few English Morello, with a grower 
(Rutter's) at Bloomfield in Prince Edward County, the large peninsula 
projecting from the north shore of Lake Ontario, zone 6a, which was 
wiped out in the severe winter of 1980-81.  As far as I know it was 
not replanted.  

Ken had or has a hardy sweet cherry which he calls Quebec Bigarreau 
or Biga, which originated from a Bing seed near the shore below 
Quebec City.  He told me that Biga seemed to have a degree of self-
fertility, although Ken has quite a number of Prunus species about 
his place. The tree of Biga which Ken showed me in 1997 was then he 
said about 20 years old and was showing some winter injury, probably 
nearing the end of its lifespan.

I note that there are some cultivars of chokecherry (Prunus 
virginiana) and pin cherry (Prunus pennsylvanica) sold by nurseries 
in the Prairie provinces. I think that some experiment station work 
has been done on them, at Beaverlodge, Alberta among others.

Claude, have you grown Nanking cherry (Prunus tomentosa)? I have not, 
but I have been told that the best of them are quite good. There are 
selections which are sold for fruit, by among others Ken Taylor, and 
Beaverlodge Nurseries (if they are still in business). There are also 
unselected plants sold by mass-market nurseries on the P. T. Barnum 
principle ("there's a sucker born every minute"). Ditto for Mongolian 
cherry, Prunus fruticosa.   

Douglas Woodard


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