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thecityman

can i graft a fruit cherry tree to a wild cherry tree?

Hi folks! I have a small (4") wild cherry tree that is right in the middle of where I'm trying to develop a small orchard. I have left this tree because I've been told that it could help cross-pollinate some of my fruiting cherry trees (I've planted 2 species of sour and 2 of sweet cherry). I would love to hear from some of you all whether that is even true (can wild cherry really pollinate fruit cherries)? (There are other wild cherries nearby that will remain if I graft this one). But the real purpose of this post is to ask if you all think I can cut the wild cherry tree a few feet above ground and then graft a fruit cherry onto it (via a bark graft/rind graft). I think I've read enough to know how to do the graft and the size of the wild cherry would probably work out based on grafting videos I've seen..BUT CAN A WILD CHERRY accept a fruit cherry graft? BTW...I have no idea what kind of wild cherry it is. Others nearby on my land that look just like it do produce really tiny, inedible wild cherries and grow VERY large. Thanks for helping.

Comments (20)

  • windfall_rob
    10 years ago

    If it is a pin cherry, then yes you can graft succesfully to it. Although I do not know how well rind grafting will work. But you can (and I have) cut them back and then graft to the watersprouts that emerge the following year.

    If it is native Black Cherry it will not graft successful.

    Pin cherries rarely reach any size so I suspect it is a black chery, but there are a few other native cherries that may work.

  • Konrad___far_north
    10 years ago

    Best to try and see one year, you might be out of luck...like windfall mentioned, even with pin cherries, it took me close to 20 years to find out that I have two species, one will take the graft, the other not!

  • organique
    10 years ago

    So glad I didn't cut down my wild cherries yet. I have three (presumably) wild cherry trees on my property. The fruit looks like a regular cherry, but the flesh to pit ratio is very low and the flavor starts off cherry and then leads into a crappy aftertaste. Instead of destroying them, I will try to graft from my Minnie Royal and Royal Lee cherry trees. Nothing to lose.

  • strudeldog_gw
    10 years ago

    The weeping ornamental Yoshino type tree at my old residence put up seedlings everywhere, and I grafting several to NorthStar (Pie Cherry) with a bark graft 100% takes. I know not wild cherry but folks might have have the seedlings about as well. Not certain how the tree will perform long run on this rootstock.

  • Konrad___far_north
    10 years ago

    If not compatible you can expect many things like,...not growing at all, graft can grow for a while, couple of weeks, month, then dying off, or it can grow good for some years, heaving fruits and then unexpectedly dying off.
    You can graft some vigorous branches several feet away from the trunk, not heavier then your thumb, or prune it heavy, let water sprout form and graft on these the following year closer to the trunk.

    I don't think black cherry is helpful for your pollination of sweet cherries, also, most likely not flowering the same time, I would graft self fruitful cherries.

  • benfisher
    10 years ago

    I tried whip grafting 50 Evans Bailey scion onto northern Wisconsin black cherries, or choke cherries. I had about 50% take and hope a few make it this spring. the native tree is very vigorous and needs constant attention. I will give it one more year and let them go from there. I did it as a test. anyone try it ?

  • lucky_p
    10 years ago

    tcm,
    Greatest likelihood is that your cherry is P.serotina, the native wild black cherry; it's everywhere here. I've never seen pincherry in this neck of the woods. Or, if I did, I didn't recognize it.
    I'm not aware that serotina will cross-pollenize - or even bloom in synchrony with - any of the 'edible' cherries.

    Evans/Bali is a great cherry for Konrad and folks in really cold climates - I've seen the photos to prove it. But let me save you some more grief, at my own expense: don't waste your time with it where you are; it's a 'dog' here in our hot zone 6 setting.

  • professorNemo
    10 years ago

    I actually had much better luck grafting sweet cherries to wild cherry trees.
    I kept cutting down wild cherry trees that kept volunteering & decided to put grafts on them instead to harness their ability to pop up 6 ft or more after being cut down. method used was to slice open a diagonal cut in the young trunk bark & push over the recipient wild root stock to inset a small twig of the graft, then covered with grafting wax. A year orcs later I had buckets of sweet cherries from those grafted trees. unfortunately, the wild trees are susceptible to borers and often die within a few years Had pie cherry grafts take too, but with less impressive results. my favorite successful graft was putting a yellow sweet cherry graft onto a center shoot on a non-producing sweet cherry(due to no cross pollination. I now have an odd separate 'tree' growing up the center of the black cherry, with yellow cherries happily growing & the rest of the sweet black cherry tree producing heavy crops of black cherries. This tree is now self-pollinating due to the graft.

  • Charlie
    10 years ago

    A neighbor has a native cherry tree in northern Virginia that is about 6 feet tall and very much in need of pruning. She would like for me to prune it and graft a some scions from my stella cherry tree. I have never grafted cherries and I have some questions. Will a stella scion take on a native cherry? I was planning on pruning most limbs and leaving a nurse limb. Using a bark graft to graft a few scions. When should I take the scion wood; should it be dormant like pears? If I decide on a bud graft, when should I harvest the bud sticks? What grafts are more likely to take? Are bark/cleft grafts made during the spring like pears?

  • paulak4
    9 years ago

    Here in anchorage ak zone 4 I grafted black republican and somerset on
    Prunus Maackii they are now around six years old the bark is copper colored and very thin. An old timer told me to graft it real early in the season
    He had a half dozen trees grafted on it

  • benfisher
    9 years ago

    I found this old thread and thought I'd update. after the winter from hell last year,, I lost 100% of the grafts I did to wild cherry. 12 of 50 appeared to grow one year.....then fail. I'm not sure if the cold got them, or they weren't comparable but they all died!

  • Konrad___far_north
    9 years ago

    Yeah...that's what I suspected, black cherry and chokecherry is not compatible.

  • Matt
    9 years ago

    I have read that in this instance that people can do two grafts. The native variety being the most hardy and strongest rooting, then a short intermediary piece which can bridge between the native and fruiting varieties. Can anyone assist? Or know someone who can? I have cut down a large native cherry and would like to graft lapins and stella to the sprouts which are sure to come up this spring. "example taken from plum/almond stone fruit grafting" - " Also (and this is where the fun starts) most fruit trees in the Prunus genus are sometimes compatible with each other: almonds, apricots, nectarines, peaches, and plums all are compatible for grafting, but occasionally it's complicated. For example, some plum rootstock is not compatible with peaches or nectarines; and some almonds require an intermediate step before grafting onto some plum rootstocks."

  • clarkinks
    9 years ago

    I've tried a lot of different grafts to pronus virginia without success. Going to keep trying.

  • appleseed70
    9 years ago

    Several years ago I raised a seedling grown from a seed from a store bought sweet cherry. The resultant tree (now quite large) looks exactly like a wild cherry. In fact, 20 feet away in a neighbors field is a wild cherry and these two trees are identical looking in every regard.
    I tried several grafts of Montmorency on it and none took. Should I try again or try using sweet cherry or just abandon the idea. I don't mind experimentation or failures as long as I know it's possible.

  • parker25mv
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Yes, wild cherries can pollinate fruiting sweet cherries. If you plant the seed, it could even result in a hybrid tree that produces cherries. But the seeds from this second generation are sterile. (I believe wild cherries and sour cherries both have the same number of chromosomes though, so in that case it would probably not result in sterility)

    You want proof that it is possible for wild cherries to pollinate sweet cherries? Mesabi is a hybrid cherry variety that resulted from a cross between Bing and Montmorency.

    You can graft fruiting cherries onto wild cherry rootstock but it will result in severe dwarfing. This is not necessarily all a bad thing, dwarfing makes the tree more likely to start producing fruit earlier in its life. Dwarfing results because the two species have a lower degree of compatibility.

  • fwhogg
    6 years ago

    Is there anyone here who has successfully grafted a Prunus Avium, or any other domestic stone fruit to a Prunus Serotina, and had it thrive for more than a year?

  • canadianplant
    6 years ago

    As far as I know, you cant graft anything onto prunus serotina, that is not P serotina


  • HU-42576284
    11 months ago

    As I understand botany, the genus of the cherry is Prunus, and that any species of that genus may be grafted into any other Prunus species, so that sweet cherry may be grafted even into a wild cherry, wild plum, apricot, prune plum or even a larger tree being grown for lumber. See the other possibilities under Wikipedia Prunus genus. Of course, a root stock of a species that is pest resistant would be a better choice then one prone to borers and other diseases.