Starting fruit trees from seed

We picked up two fruit trees from the local nursery this year. Each tree was about 5-7 years old, and MAN were they expensive! one of the trees is a "Bali Cherry" also known as an Evans Cherry. It's got sour cherries, is self-pollinating, and a natural dwarf that will mean it will get a max of 10' tall, give or take. It's a pretty tree, and a good size for the 'burbs. But a small little tree like that doesn't provide a whole lot of fruit....and I can't see paying what the future prices will be. So I'm going to try and start some little trees from the pits of these little cherries. Has anyone done this before, or would you care to live vicariously through these posts?

I tell you now, the damn squirrels love these things. As do the birds.

Nice. Keep an eye on the birds in the fall, they get drunk on overripe berries and can't fly. Some of them get so bad that they have to lean on something to standup. Robins are the usual customer at my backyard vines. It's usually an all day affair when they find the right berries.

Should be an interesting experiment. Nearly all commercial and nursery fruit trees are grafted on root stock that is more hardy than that of the grafted bearing tree. The resulting tree fruit from seed will likely not be the same or even resemble fruit from the originating tree. It will be unique and could be quite good.

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Originally Posted by battlemidget

Nice. Keep an eye on the birds in the fall, they get drunk on overripe berries and can't fly. Some of them get so bad that they have to lean on something to standup. Robins are the usual customer at my backyard vines. It's usually an all day affair when they find the right berries.

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I'm keeping an eye out for that. The few cherries I'm leaving have been pre-nibbled by birds or squirrels; I've actually been able to get a full pint jar of cherries and I just put this little tree in in May.

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Originally Posted by Hummer

Should be an interesting experiment. Nearly all commercial and nursery fruit trees are grafted on root stock that is more hardy than that of the grafted bearing tree. The resulting tree fruit from seed will likely not be the same or even resemble fruit from the originating tree. It will be unique and could be quite good.

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Cool! I can't wait to see what they used. I'm thinking I'll plant at least a dozen pits. Maybe more.

I'll keep you all apprised.

Sheesh,
I can?t even get wild Yucca seeds to sprout and you are asking about designer cherry seeds??.. [hammer]

But I was reading up on getting Rainer cherry seeds to sprout and it was mentioned to winter them in the freezer, and after thawing crack them with pliers before planting. But the weather is to severe for them to survive outdoors. So I gave up.

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Originally Posted by SideShow Bob

Sheesh,
I can?t even get wild Yucca seeds to sprout and you are asking about designer cherry seeds??.. [hammer]

But I was reading up on getting Rainer cherry seeds to sprout and it was mentioned to winter them in the freezer, and after thawing crack them with pliers before planting. But the weather is to severe for them to survive outdoors. So I gave up.

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I think Rainier cherry trees can't handle the altitude here, nor the extreme weather. Montmorency, Stella, and North Star all seem to do well here. There's a lot of tips and tricks to getting trees and seeds to sprout and take, especially in the godawful "junk soil" that comprises our neighborhood. I would have jumped all over a North Star, but they sold the last one before I got there. Dangit.

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Originally Posted by battlemidget

Nice. Keep an eye on the birds in the fall, they get drunk on overripe berries and can't fly. Some of them get so bad that they have to lean on something to standup. Robins are the usual customer at my backyard vines. It's usually an all day affair when they find the right berries.

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That is exactly why we used to go to Boulder every weekend when I was in my 20's!

We didn't grow cherries but I know from reading extension service tree fruit bulletins that the western cherry fruit fly has seriously damaged cherry production in Western CO over the past 20 years. Previously, cherry trees were mostly a spray free fruit culture except for early spring tree oil application. There are many old cherry orchards around Palisade that have been productive with 75 year old trees.

One should be prepared to control insect pests. With some fruits all it takes is one negligent backyard fruit tree grower within 3-5 miles to cost farmers tens of thousands of dollars in chemical costs and lost fruit production. When I had an active orchard I made deals with several surrounding neighbors to pull out their backyard fruit trees in exchange for a couple bushels of fruit each year. It worked and made for good neighbors. All they had were wormy apples and weeping peaches anyway.

It might not be an issue where you live but effective pest control is key wherever you garden.

At our mountain container veggie garden we're using wire surrounds to exclude voles, chipmunks, golden-mantled ground squirrels, and lately, a yellow-bellied marmot. I built big screen panels for the raised garden to discourage the mule deer. One of them really likes kale. We don't want to harm the wildlife so our job is to effectively exclude it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hummer

We didn't grow cherries but I know from reading extension service tree fruit bulletins that the western cherry fruit fly has seriously damaged cherry production in Western CO over the past 20 years. Previously, cherry trees were mostly a spray free fruit culture except for early spring tree oil application. There are many old cherry orchards around Palisade that have been productive with 75 year old trees.

One should be prepared to control insect pests. With some fruits all it takes is one negligent backyard fruit tree grower within 3-5 miles to cost farmers tens of thousands of dollars in chemical costs and lost fruit production. When I had an active orchard I made deals with several surrounding neighbors to pull out their backyard fruit trees in exchange for a couple bushels of fruit each year. It worked and made for good neighbors. All they had were wormy apples and weeping peaches anyway.

It might not be an issue where you live but effective pest control is key wherever you garden.

At our mountain container veggie garden we're using wire surrounds to exclude voles, chipmunks, golden-mantled ground squirrels, and lately, a yellow-bellied marmot. I built big screen panels for the raised garden to discourage the mule deer. One of them really likes kale. We don't want to harm the wildlife so our job is to effectively exclude it.

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As always, this is very valuable information. Thank you!

I managed to get 1 1/2 pints of small sour cherries from the tree- I left a good dozen and a half cherries that had mostly been nibbled, for the wildlife and bees/wasps. Now that I have been able to nurture and obsess over my gardening this year, I'm finding the biggest pests to be the frathouse of five squirrels that are digging up my morning glories ( yes, the plants were contained) before they had even grown beyond the two leaves, rooting through my borage, and eating my strawberries and mexican sunflowers. I also suspect that they have been the ones rummaging through my bush beans and chewing off the tops of the plants, but I can't be certain. Everything is in beds at least a foot high, so I don't think it's bunnies.

Part of the garden experiment this year was to coax out potential pests. It honestly never occurred to me how destructive these buggers were. My answer will be in the form of chicken wire covers for the plants. I may be able to make a large chicken wire surround for the tree- it's barely 5'6" this year.

Insect pests are something I need to study up on. I put out milky spore, but it rained the same afternoon, so I'm going to reapply it. Our peach tree is in its "off year;" the late freeze really affected it. If there are more than 2 dozen peaches on the tree, I'm a monkey's uncle. But the leaves are green and glossy, and it gets fed every spring and fall. The apple is getting pruned this fall, and the new plum tree is getting used to its new home and has no fruit yet.

It's no orchard, but from a small 1/4 acre, it's not too shabby.

I'll get on the extension site and see what pests are common, and will see what they suggest for control. That way I can get it in hand before next year. I know you also had suggestions in another post, so I'll go take notes.

Thank again for the information! I don't think there are any orchards within a few miles of me (I'll double check on a map), but I still don't want to adversely affect my neighbor's fruit trees.