Pie cherry tree problems...no fruit

[dstvns]

Hello again,

I have a Starkspur montmorency pie cherry tree. When I first brought this tree home 3 years ago, it was 5 ft tall with over a half dozen cherries on it. Since then I've received tons of blossoms every year, and the tree is 7 ft tall, but this year is the first time I ever received fruit since first planting. I had _one fruit_ this year...a great fruit, mind you ;) but still a little lacking on quantity.

I have with me the original card that came with the tree. It says its a semi-dwarf pie cherry, and "super productive". If one cherry every

3 years is super-productive, I'd hate to see the ones that skimp ;) It also says it's "self pollinating", which I am also highly skeptical about.

Since it had tons of fruit while at the nursery, I can only guess it needs a cross pollinator to set fruit, which it shouldn't, since it's a pie cherry. If I needed another pie cherry to cross-pollinate this one, can anyone recommend any? Would another montmorency be appropriate?

Can pie cherries cross-pollinate each other? Do cross-pollinating pie cherries set a lot more fruit than single pie cherry trees? It's been difficult to find this info, everything on cross-pollination is about sweet varieties. Thanks very much, Dan

[Joseph Meehan]

I don't know the tree, but many require cross pollination and/or do better when surrounded by a number of other trees.

Other possible problems, weather, local conditions of soil, moisture or weather or just a lot of transplant shock.

[Alexander Pensky]

What zone are you in? When I was a kid we had several old sour cherry trees in the yard. They were amazingly productive in years when we had cherries -- but only perhaps every third or fourth year was a "cherry year". The reason being that in Cleveland OH, the average date of last frost is fairly close to when the cherries are in flower. If there was a warm spring and then a late May frost, then brown mushy blossoms, no cherries. Cold March/April with no late frost ===> many cherries.

- Alex

[Ben Sharvy]

You are being a little impatient. Pie cherries usually start bearing in 4-6 years, and nothing bears heavily when it is young. Add a year to account for transplant shock, and you get 5 years at the earliest. Your tree sounds about five years old.

You might also lack pollinators (bees). Self-productive plants may still need a pollinator to transfer the pollen from the male to the female parts of the flower (sometimes, they are diffferent flowers on the same plant).

[dstvns]

I think I must've asked this question a couple months ago. I will try to remember this time :)

Yea, I saw the first honeybee today in about 4 years. Hopefully they are now recovering.

Dan

[J. Lane]

[Joseph Meehan]

Being from Columbus Ohio, I should have noted that as well. Down in Columbus we did not have the problem you may have had in Cleveland, but we would get an occasional year without cherries.

[Joseph Meehan]

I hope so. I believe I saw a report not too long ago that said some mite resistant varieties (I believe a behavior change, more grooming) had been observed.

[dr-solo]

well except for dwarf fruit trees. my cherries on Gisela bore the year after I planted them. Ingrid

and nothing bears heavily when it is young. Add a year

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