Need Advice on Cherry Budding

Hey'all,

I'm trying my hand at budding sweet cherries for the first time and I'm a bit worried. I've put in 15 buds and just realized that I didn't know to look for vegetative vs. reproductive bud when I cut the scions. I chose the healthiest scions I could get off an old tree with nice fat buds (that's all that I noticed except on weak growth), so am I going to be rewarded with just flowers in the spring or some possible sprouts? If anyone has pictures or a good description of what I SHOULD have chosen, please post.

Good question, Agrinerd. Can't help you w/the answer tho but will watch this post to learn from it.

By the way, what kind of cherry did you work with? Bush? (Nanking?) Tree? (Sweet September, etc?) I've been thinking of just taking cuttings of my bush cherry (haven't taken the time tho yet).

And also, WELCOME TO DG!

Thanks Horseshoe,

I got got a good reply from another forum, and from what I can gather, I think I did okay. Here's the posting...

"On sweet cherry, floral buds are often clustered on the ends of old fruit spurs. On one-year old shoots the basal buds are more likely to be floral while the apical ones are vegetative. If buds were used from new wood (i.e., this current season's growth), most of the buds are vegetative at this point in the season."

The buds were from an old seedling that my Dad found growing in Ohio in the '60s. It's pretty much like a Bing, but self-fertile and crack resistant. I grafted them onto VSL 2 rootstocks from Raintree Nursery. They are said to be similar to Gisela 5, which should keep them down to 10 or 12 feet.

Hope they do well. Haven't done much bud grafting but this makes me want to try it now!

Be sure to give us an update when you can. Maybe pics?? And I bet many folks could use more in-depth info on the procedure.

Thanks again!

Hmmm...didn't do well at all. I think I didn't wrap them tight enough and even though I waited a month, I think I cut the wraps too soon. After a few days, the stock sort of "spat out" most of the buds. The few remainders look dead and dry. I had the scions stored pretty well, but they may not have appreciated sitting in the fridge the 2 weeks that it took for me to find the time. Oh well, I'll know better next year.

Dogs. Oh well...live and learn.

It would make a great forum topic to start sometime. Maybe at the proper time we could get a few folks to try it out and compare notes here on DG, eh? Could be fun!

Sounds good to me. 'Til then...