How Many Have a Black Cherry?

eminart

I've collected one black cherry and very likely will collect some more, if you guys provide any encouragement at all.

I've looked around the forum and I found a few old threads where people say they are trying black cherry as bonsai, but I haven't found much in the way of photos or new info on how your trees are doing. So, who here has made some progress with their cherry trees? Any problems? Likes/dislikes?

I have access to a lot of land and black cherry seems to be fairly common on a lot of it. From what I can tell, they seem to have fine branching, relatively short internodes, and fairly small leaves, so I'm considering looking for a couple more of them if I can find some nice candidates.

The only problem I've seen from the one that I did collect was that it had a very large tap root and not much in the way of side roots. It has great movement, a lot of basal flare, and natural taper. The roots are just a bit scarce.

Photos welcome of your black cherries or other prunus varieties.

--scott

__________________
"I want life in every word
to the extend that it's absurd....." -- the postal service

Advertisement

Forest Reef

Two words: Beware Borers.

I had a seedling that was developing into a nice shohin - it was my "cut to shape" guinea pig. Planted it on a tile. Nice nebari / root flare developing. Fine twiggy-ness, ramification going well with small internodes & tiny buds. And I happen to like young prunus' shiny bark patterns.

Operative concept in previous paragraph: past tense verbs.

Borers got it (last summer). It was on a back bench (the "grow-out" rows); I didn't notice anything wrong 'til it was too late.

Aside: Still don't know what a good borer remedy would be. I'm open to suggestions - something commercially available today to the average person without a pesticide license using moderate personal protection at most - Space suits out, but I do have one of those masks with filter cartridges & rubber gloves. [Please - nobody suggest lindane & other great borer remedies that are no longer available to the average person, if at all. ]

Anyway - the seedling came from my woods (it was in the way of a small clearing I needed). I have mature black cherry around; I'm not sure I'll bother with one again until I have a "borer plan". I was told they were "borer magnets", and it unfortunately appears to be true in my neck of the woods....

So - practical advice to you - the tap root can be managable. It might have been better to spend a season or two developing some side-roots before collection, but you've already collected it. I didn't have any trouble with my initially-nothing-but-a-tap-root seedling when I nipped the tap. Granted, seedlings are more vigorous (don't know how old your collected tree is). Assuming your tree survives the initial collection - you can develop a good root system.

Do watch out for pests, and have a plan for "what if..."

Hope that helps, and good luck with your black cherry.

__________________
Anita

Nature, time, and patience are the three great physicians.

rockm

I have a Black Cherry (Prunus resinosa) that I collected about eight years ago. I have found they are marginal to good bonsai material. They have some quirks that are not easily overcome.

They are a pioneer species with all the associated issues, branch drop and die back along with an added attraction--they are borer magnets.

Internodes can be short, but usually it is pretty long. Internode length, from what I've seen in my area, depends on where the tree is growing. Stressed environments produce shorter internode length. In a pot, the tree will have very long internodes...

I have found this tree will drop branches and leaves if it gets too dry too wet or pruning is too aggressive. They sucker from the base too.

Branching is stiff and awkward, as that's the way the species usually grows in the wild. Pruning has to be carefully done in the spring, as the branch tends to die back behind the cut by at least an inch, sometimes more, sometimes the entire branch. Even a little die back can kill off the buds left on the branch. The entire branch may follow.

Borers are a real problem, as this is a fruit tree. Borers love fruit trees. You have to keep a very close watch in the spring for these pests as they can do significant damage in a short time. One almost girdled and killed my tree in a couple of days. Sawdust piles at the foot of the tree in April, along with slime trails are a tip off you've got to do some borer patrol.

I would not collect another one unless the trunk was REALLY good--not the typical arrow straight trunks with gun metal colored smooth bark that is typical of the species. Older specimens, like the one I stumbled across are capable of having beautiful rough plated pine-like bark. Mine was also collected in an area where it was regularly bumped into by drunken four wheeling teens, resulting in some pretty nice natural shari too. Look around ALOT for an interesting trunk. I wouldn't waste the effort on something that's "typical."

On the plus side, they are extremely easy to collect with very little root. I simply sawed mine out of the ground. It's trunk is seven inches across. I just took a saw to the large lateral roots four inches out, pried the tree up, severed the tap at the trunk. No problems at all. Tree recovered fine. The tree backbudded up and down the old wood on the trunk in a few weeks.

Good luck.

eminart

Thanks guys. I think I'll see how this one does before I collect any more. The one I do have has nice, gnarly bark. It has good movement too and is in no way "arrow straight". It's probably about 4" in diameter.

Anyway, thanks again for the replies. I'll try to keep this one alive for now. I'd really like to find a nice willow oak, but it seems every time I go out looking for something specific, I find something else instead. I can't wait til spring.

__________________
"I want life in every word
to the extend that it's absurd....." -- the postal service