How Many Years After Grafting Does a Cherry Tree Bear Fruit?
Cherry is a relatively expensive fruit, with bright red, glossy fruit that is delicate like agate gems and sweet in taste. Many people have started growing cherries, so do you know how many years after grafting a cherry tree bears fruit?
1. How Many Years After Grafting a Cherry Tree Bears Fruit
A grafted cherry tree generally bears fruit in 3-5 years, but grafting 2-3 varieties of cherry onto one tree allows it to bear fruit normally. If only one variety of cherry is grafted, it may fail to bear fruit, so care must be taken when grafting.
The cherry tree is a strictly cross-pollinated plant. Most large cherry varieties cannot bear fruit normally through self-pollination, and 2-3 varieties must be planted at the same time to pollinate each other in order to bear fruit normally.
2. Cultivation Techniques
Main variety and pollinizer configuration. Cherry is self-unfruitful, so pollinizer varieties with the same flowering period and strong compatibility must be configured. Planting time: planting can be done from before and after leaf fall in autumn to before bud break the following spring, with autumn planting being preferable.
Planting density. This is determined according to the climate, soil, water conservancy and terrain conditions of the cherry orchard, variety characteristics, dwarfing ability of the rootstock, pruning and training methods, and overall management level.
Fertilizer and water management. Fertilization: for young trees and trees bearing fruit for the first time, the main task is to apply sufficient base fertilizer; young trees are given 1-2 topdressings of nitrogen fertilizer, and trees bearing fruit for the first time can be given 3-4 topdressings of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer throughout the year. For large fruiting trees, fertilizer is usually applied 4 times a year.
Autumn base fertilizer: applied in September-October each year in conjunction with deep digging and hole expansion. Post-harvest water: after the fruit is harvested, the tree is in an important period of recovery and flower bud differentiation. This watering should be controlled, and less is better than more; irrigate in conjunction with fertilization to lay the foundation for a bumper harvest the following year. Freezing water: applied from leaf fall until before the soil freezes, so as to keep soil temperature and humidity relatively stable and protect the root system from freezing damage.
Training and pruning. Spindle shape: trunk height 40-60cm, tree height 3-4m. The central leader has 10-15 main branches arranged in whorls, with an opening angle of 70°-80°.
Small canopy delayed-open central leader shape. It has a central leader, trunk height 40-50cm, with 5-6 main branches on the whole tree, divided into two layers, with a distance of 120-150cm between layers.
Pruning. Young tree stage: cultivate the tree framework and expand the canopy. Suppress the strong and support the weak, so that the leader and subordinates are clearly distinguished and the layers are clear.
Hand pollination. During the flowering period, collect bell-shaped flower buds from pollinizer varieties and make mixed pollen, then carry out hand pollination once each at the initial flowering stage and the full flowering stage; or, between 10:00 and 17:00, use a feather duster to dab and roll over trees of different varieties to carry out artificial supplementary pollination.
Cherry has relatively strict environmental requirements, so the yield from cultivation is relatively low. When planting, it should be considered carefully.