Cherry grafting: summer, spring

Cherry grafting is a fairly common way to propagate this stone fruit tree. It is widely used by gardeners for a variety of purposes, from species conservation to increased yields.

However, this is a rather complicated matter, and one cannot do without a detailed study of the issue.

Ways to propagate cherries

There are several ways to propagate cherries. The most common of these is grafting it onto another tree. In addition, you can use the seed method or vegetative, using cuttings. Some varieties of cherries can be propagated by root shoots.

The seed method is the longest and most unreliable. When grown from seeds, sweet cherries often lose their varietal characteristics, growing into a game. However, there is also a chance to get a varietal tree. To do this, you need to carefully select planting material, using the seeds of only the largest and most delicious fruits.

It is very important that the seeds are taken from cherries that grow in the same region. Seed material taken from fruits grown in more southern regions (even if they are sweeter and tastier) cannot be used. Seedlings from such seeds, of course, will sprout, but with a high degree of probability they will die in the very first winter.

Before planting, seeds must go through a stratification procedure. This is usually done in winter by placing the bones in a box of damp sand and placing it in a cold place (you can just bury it in the snow). In spring, the seeds are sown in prepared soil.

The method of propagation by cuttings is not suitable for all varieties. The average percentage of rooting of cuttings does not exceed 10, and only in rare varieties it can reach 50%, which is a very good indicator.

Grafting is the simplest and most effective method of propagating cherries. Its essence is to graft the shoot of the desired cherry variety to the wild seedling of another fruit tree.

For propagation by root shoots, two-year-old shoots are suitable, spaced from the main trunk by at least a quarter of a meter. They are carefully dug up along with part of the maternal root and transplanted to a new place.

Propagation of cherries by cuttings

Cherry propagated by cuttings will retain all the varietal characteristics of the mother tree. Its berries will be just as tasty, and they will have to wait no longer than five years.

When can you root cherry cuttings?

Reddened and hardened layers from the bottom of the tree are suitable for harvesting cuttings. In early June, they are cut. The length of each should be approximately 30-35 cm. The procedure should be carried out with a sharp clean knife, in the morning or in the evening, while it is cool outside. Cut cuttings are immediately placed in water.

Preparing the soil for planting cherries with cuttings

The soil for planting cuttings must be specially prepared. Qualitatively prepared soil should be different:

• breathability;
• moisture capacity;
• the absence of any worms, larvae;
• lack of roots of other plants;
• the absence of infections.

Most often, a mixture of peat, river sand and soddy soil in a ratio of 1: 1: 2 is used as a nutrient mixture for planting cuttings.

Propagation of cherries by cuttings at home

For cuttings, apricots that have recently entered fruiting are best suited. The cut is made from below at an angle of 45 °, from above at a right angle. The cut stalk must have 3 full leaves, the distance from the lowest to the beginning of the cut must be at least 3 cm.

How to plant cherry cuttings

Before rooting, sweet cherry cuttings are placed for 16–20 hours in a solution of a root formation stimulator (heteroauxin), immersing them by 2 cm. Then the cuttings are planted vertically in prepared containers with nutrient soil or in a greenhouse under a film.

Rooting cuttings of cherries

After planting the cuttings, it is important to ensure that the soil does not dry out. Watering should be plentiful and timely. The first adventitious roots should appear in the cuttings after 3 weeks, and full rooting will occur after 1,5 months.

To increase the percentage of rooting cuttings, you can use the following method. Future cuttings 10 days before cutting are wrapped with several turns of cloth electrical tape at the site of the future cut. During this time, the cambium of the tree bark becomes discolored without access to sunlight, which increases root formation in this place by about 30%.

Will a branch of a cherry tree give roots in water

Cherry, like most other stone fruit trees, is unlikely to be forced to take root in this way. However, there are exceptions. In order for the cherry to take root in the water, you need to carry out a series of manipulations:

• In autumn, choose some good 1-2 year old side branches.
• Break them without damaging the bark with an interval of 15–20 cm.
• Fix the branch in a state of fracture by winding it to a straight branch-tire.
• In the spring, cut the branch at the break and put it in the water.

For cuttings, a dark plastic bottle with a cut off neck is well suited. It needs to be filled with rainwater, add two tablets of activated charcoal, place the cuttings in it and put them on the windowsill. After about 3 weeks, root formation will begin. After the length of the roots is 5–7 cm, the cuttings can be planted in nutrient soil.

Growing cherries from cuttings

It is best to keep planted cuttings in a mini-greenhouse. It is important to provide future seedlings with an optimal microclimate, maintaining a temperature of about + 25 ° C even at night and high humidity. Watering should be done frequently, 5-6 times a day. If rot occurs, you need to reduce the amount of water, but not the number of waterings.

How to root a cherry branch in the open field

Not every branch and not always can be rooted. So growing cherries from a twig, simply breaking it off from a neighbor’s tree and sticking it into the ground, is unlikely to succeed. Even specially prepared cuttings taken in a certain period do not always take root. If the timing and parameters are suitable, you can try to make a cutting out of it and root a cherry branch in this way.

Propagation of sweet cherries by green cuttings

Green are cuttings harvested from non-lignified shoots of the current year. This method is widely used in the propagation of many trees and shrubs, including cherries. The advantages of this method are that green cuttings take root much better.

All varietal characteristics of the mother plant with this method of reproduction are preserved in full.

Is it possible to grow cherries from green cuttings

Green cuttings are considered not a particularly effective way for cherries. However, you can try to propagate it in this way.

When to carry out green cuttings of cherries

Cutting of green cuttings is carried out in June, and in regions with a short summer – in July. Cutting cuttings is best done in the early morning, while it is still cool. You can do this even on cloudy days.

How to propagate cherries with green cuttings

For green cuttings, young side shoots of the current year, growing at the bottom of the crown on the sunny side of the tree, are best suited. They should not show signs of fungus or other diseases. For harvesting cuttings, you need to choose branches with a length of at least 30 cm with large, well-developed buds.

The cuttings are cut with a sharp knife, the pruner is not suitable for this purpose, as it crushes the cut. Cut shoots are cut into cuttings 8-12 cm in size and placed in water or in a container with wet moss. After the harvesting procedure is completed, the cuttings are prepared for planting in a greenhouse. Before this, the lower cut is kept in a solution of a root formation stimulator (Kornevin, Heteroauxin) for 15–20 hours, and then planted in nutrient soil under a film.

Caring for rooted cuttings

Care consists in regularly moistening the soil, as well as maintaining the temperature at + 25 .. + 27 ° С. A greenhouse with cuttings should be regularly ventilated. Do not allow direct sunlight to hit the cuttings. Subject to all the rules of planting and care, rooting occurs in 3-4 weeks.

Propagation of cherries by layering

The method of reproduction by layering is used mainly on fruit bushes. Fruit trees are propagated by aerial layering. For apple and other fruit trees, this method is widely used, but for sweet cherries it is used extremely rarely.

Advantages and disadvantages of this method

The advantage of this method is that within one season you can grow a ready-made adult seedling. The disadvantage is that it does not always work on cherries.

How to propagate cherries by layering

The essence of the air layering method is to surround the growing branch with earth. A shrub shoot can simply be bent to the ground and covered with soil, but this will not work with a fruit tree. Therefore, a container with earth is placed directly in the crown of a tree, placing a growing branch of a fruit tree in it.

The process for obtaining an air layer is as follows. The shoot selected for propagation is ringed, removing a strip of bark 1,5–2 cm wide from it. Then the cut is treated with a root formation stimulator, covered with a moist soil substrate and wrapped in plastic wrap. The edges of the film are firmly fixed with adhesive tape.

In such a moist soil environment, the root system develops. In autumn, the entire shoot is cut off from the mother tree and placed in a greenhouse for growing; after the formation of a full-fledged root system, it is transferred to open ground to a permanent place.

Cherry grafting is the best way to propagate

Grafting is the fastest way to get a crop. This method allows you to save all varietal characteristics, and due to the greater winter hardiness of rootstocks, increase the resistance to frost of the plant itself.

What is the difference between a grafted cherry and an ungrafted one?

An ungrafted cherry has no trace of grafting on the trunk. Such trees are grown, as a rule, from seeds. At the same time, they retain all species characteristics, but not varietal ones. The grafted sweet cherry has a well-marked graft mark just above the root collar.

What can you graft a cherry on?

Best of all, plants are grafted onto related or belonging to the same species. Cherry belongs to the genus Plum, and they also include cherries, plums and cherry plums. Therefore, the best stock for sweet cherries must be chosen from this group of plants.

Is it possible to graft cherries on cherries

You can graft cherries onto another variety and grow several varieties of cherries on the same tree. The method is widely used to save space in the garden, since it is not necessary to plant pollinating trees. Two or more varieties are on the same tree and cross-pollinate each other.

How to graft a cherry on a plum

Cherry grafting on plum is done to get tastier fruits and increase yields. It can be done in several ways, the most effective of which is splitting. However, such a vaccination is rarely done, since the sweet cherry takes root on the plum for a rather long time.

Is it possible to graft a cherry on a pear

Pear and cherry belong to different families (pome and stone fruits, respectively), so such experiments are likely to fail. With enough time and seed material, you can experiment, but the result will require a lot of time and money.

Cherry grafting on bird cherry

Again, this is an experiment with an unknown end, since it is not known what will come of such a hybrid. Even if the scion takes root on the bird cherry stock, you will have to follow it throughout your life.

In Soviet times, such a hybrid was considered possible for the following reason. Sweet cherries were often grafted onto antipka – wild cherries. Previously, this plant was classified as a bird cherry, and only not very long ago it was attributed to another species.

Is it possible to graft cherries on cherry plums

Cherry grafting on cherry plum takes root well and is carried out quite often. It improves the plant’s hardiness and helps it grow normally in places with high groundwater levels.

The nuances of grafting cherries on the turn

The turn is a distant relative of the plum, so grafting may well be successful. However, few people will use the rootstock of the turn for planting on the site, since it forms a large amount of root growth, which will constantly have to be fought.

Is it possible to graft a cherry on an apple tree

For the apple tree, everything that has already been said about the pear above is true. Such a vaccination can only be done as an experiment, which is likely to be unsuccessful.

Cherry grafting on mountain ash

Pome fruits (apple, pear) are often grafted onto mountain ash, but stone fruits, as a rule, do not take root on it. It is hardly advisable to use rowan rootstock for cherries.

Scion preparation

For the scion, you need to use ripe lignified cuttings of the first year of life. They must meet the following conditions:

• The thickness is about 7-8 mm, about the same as a simple pencil.
• Short internodes.
• The number of developed growth buds is at least 5 pcs.
• Length from 30 to 40 cm.

Cuttings are best taken from trees no older than 10 years. Harvest cuttings in late autumn or early winter, after the first significant frost. At this time, the cold temperature has already killed most of the fungi on the bark, and the cuttings themselves have hardened.

Cut cuttings are stored, as a rule, collected in bunches and tied up. Any container is used for storage. The place of storage itself can be different, the main requirement for it is not to wake up the buds of the tree until spring. Many simply store the container outside, burying it in the snow. To prevent damage by rodents, the container is wrapped in nylon or covered with fiberglass.

If the deadlines are missed, they can be prepared in early spring, while the plant is still in a “sleeping” state. At this time, the cuttings are harvested with a margin, since some of them may be frozen.

If the vaccination is done in the summer, the stalk is not stored. At this time, delay is highly undesirable, so the vaccination is done immediately.

Cherry grafting dates 

Spring vaccination is the most reliable. At this time, the sap flow of the tree is the most active, so the survival rate of the scion is the best. You can graft trees all summer until September. A later vaccination simply will not have time to take root.

Cherry Grafting Methods

There are quite a few methods for grafting a cutting to a rootstock. It is better for a novice gardener to use the simplest ones, gradually moving on to more complex and requiring considerable preparation methods.

Cherry bud grafting

This method is pretty simple. A T-shaped incision is made on the rootstock, the bark is slightly bent. From the cutting of the scion, a small part containing the kidney is cut out using the angular method. This piece is inserted behind the bark, the bark is returned to its place and wrapped with tape.

Cherry grafting under the bark

This is a very simple method used for grafting many trees, including cherries. It is performed in the spring, during the period of intensive sap flow. At other times, it is quite difficult to bend the bark on the rootstock trunk. For this method, the thickness of the rootstock must be significantly greater than the thickness of the grafted cutting.

For grafting, the stock is sawn at a right angle. Then, with a sharp knife, an incision is made in the bark and unbent. The stalk of the scion is cut with an oblique cut at an acute angle and inserted behind the bark. The graft is fixed, and the entire cut is smeared with garden pitch. If the stock is quite thick, several scion cuttings can be grafted onto one stump.

Cherry budding

Eye grafting is called budding and is usually done in June. This procedure is done as follows:

• From the cutting of the scion, a part of the stem containing the kidney is cut out, along with a piece of bark.
• An incision is made on the trunk of the stock, repeating the shape of the cut piece of the scion.
• The graft is placed in the rootstock recess and securely fixed with tape.

Cherry grafting in a split

Grafting into a split is done in almost the same way as under the bark. The sawn stock is split in half with a garden knife. Scion cuttings are inserted into it along the edges, sharpened with a wedge so that the outer layers of the cambium coincide. The cut itself should not be touched by hands, this is important. Otherwise, the scion will not take root.

After the end of all procedures, the open parts of the vaccination site are covered with garden pitch.

Cherry grafting by copulation

When grafting is carried out by the copulation method, the thickness of the stock and scion must be the same. On both parts, an oblique cut is made with a sharp knife, its length should be at least three times the thickness of the cutting itself. The rootstock and scion are folded so that the layers of the cambium match as accurately as possible. After that, the vaccination site is wrapped with tape.

In addition to the usual, they also use improved copulation. In this case, in the middle of the cut of both the stock and the scion, an additional split is made, which makes it possible to fix the scion more tightly. This method greatly increases the number of points of contact between the layers of the cambium, and vaccinations take root faster and more reliably.

Cherry grafting with a “bridge”

This method is used in emergency cases to save the tree. Often, after winter, fruit trees have ring-shaped destruction of the bark (from frost, burns, or from damage by hares). If no measures are taken, the tree is guaranteed to die, since the nutrients from the root system will not be able to reach the crown.

In this case, a bridge is used. The area where there is no bark is simply covered with a kind of bridges made of cuttings, along which the movement of juices will go. The vaccination itself is performed as follows. Above and below the damaged area, two T-shaped incisions are made strictly vertically (straight at the bottom, inverted at the top).

The cuttings are cut into an oblique symmetrical cut and wound up behind the rootstock bark. The cutting should stand upright, in the direction of natural growth. There may be several such bridges. After this, the contact points are fixed with tape, and the grafting site itself is wrapped with a film to create a greenhouse effect.

Cherry grafting in the corner and side cut

The side cut method allows not only to graft another variety to the tree, but also to turn it in the right direction. For grafting, it is necessary that the diameters of the rootstock and scion match. It is done like this:

• An oblique cut is made on the stock, and both the bark and the wood are cut.
• The end of the scion is cut in the form of a sharp wedge.
• The graft is inserted into the cut on the rootstock, the cambial layers are maximally combined with each other.

After that, the vaccination site is wrapped with tape.

For grafting using the corner cut method, the thickness of the rootstock must be significantly greater than the thickness of the scion. As well as in the methods of grafting “by the bark” or “in the split”, the stock is sawn perpendicular to the trunk. At the edge of the cut, an angular cut is made of the same depth as the thickness of the scion. The bottom of the scion cutting is cut at the same angle.

The graft is inserted into the corner notch. The cambium layers are combined as much as possible, trimming if necessary. After that, the scion is tightly wrapped with tape, and the cut is covered with garden pitch.

Care of grafted seedlings

The vaccination site should be inspected regularly. All shoots growing below the grafting site should be removed so that it does not take away nutrients. 1,5–2 months after vaccination, a splint should be applied to the junction. This will give the shoot the necessary rigidity and protect it from strong winds or bird damage. It will be possible to remove them after the end of leaf fall.

How to plant a grafted cherry

The grafted cherry is planted in a permanent place in the usual way. 2-3 year old seedlings are planted in the spring when the tree is still dormant. It is better to prepare a pit for planting in the fall.

Cherries are planted in pits along with a clod of earth on the roots. The root neck should be at the level of 3-5 cm above ground level. The pit is covered with soil mixture, rammed and spilled with several buckets of water. For better preservation of moisture in the soil, the trunk circle is mulched with peat or humus. A young seedling must be tied to a support to protect it from wind damage in the first years of life.

Whether to deepen the vaccination in cherries

The grafting site is always above the root neck, and it must be above ground level. Violation of this condition can lead to the fact that the sweet cherry simply will not bloom and bear fruit.

Everything about grafting cherries is in the video at the link below.

Conclusion

Cherry grafting performs many useful functions. With its help, you can propagate trees, improve the quality of fruits and increase winter hardiness. Grafting on dwarf rootstocks can significantly reduce the growth of sweet cherries, thereby facilitating their care and subsequent harvesting.

And grafting is the only way to grow several varieties of this tasty and healthy berry on one tree at once.