Has anyone had any experience with Cherry Trees that have both yellow and red cherries on the same tree? I was thinking of ordering one from Stark and was hoping someone might have tried growing one. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks!

-- Sharon (cheesyemailaddy@notreal.com), March 19, 2002

Answers

Sharon, I don't have any experience with this tree but from what I have read, if you would like to have ten diffent kinds of cherries growing on your tree, you can do this with grafts, the only thing that you have to consider is whether one graft will out-draw the others for nutrients. For this reason, it is best to have all of your grafts come from varieties that ripen at nearly the same time. Not only should most of the varieties produce adaquately, but your tree will be balanced; unbalancing happens when one out-draws and grows faster, longer, stronger, heavier, etc, and your tree starts to look, and act unbalanced. If the nursery is selling this tree with a double graft, then they should have tested that these varieties will not compete with one another, as it is not in thier business' interest to sell an unbalanced tree. Throw a few questions at them about this, and they should know what you're talking about. If this tree sets red and yellow cherries at random, then it probably is a mutant clone that someone has grown from a random pit, and liked it, snd sold it to the nursery, and they are grafting cuttings onto a seeded root-stalk, probably... unless this is a cherry tree that I haven't heard of before. If that makes sense to you, I hope it's helpful.

-- roberto pokachinni (pokachinni@yahoo.com), March 20, 2002.