It must be true. I get no cherries on my apple trees.

Plant away.

~Chills : P

And I get no apples on my cherry trees.

So you all think its not true? Is that what I am getting?

Maybe you could ask him why .. I never heard anything related to that. Also my apples are about 10' away from my sour cherries.

Scott

to add to scotts comment, would u also ask your ag man what varieties of apples their selling and if possible could they forward me a catalog ?

we grew sweet and sour cherries right next to apples in our families orchard. to also include peaches and pears.

They both get diseases. But they get different ones.

So, I'm also curious just who it was that spoke with you.

ok, I'll elaborate..

I wrote an email to my local county extension office agent. They have been good at answering my questions in the past, but I have to say, I have not always agreed with their advice. So I asked their advice on sour cherry varieties for the middle piedmont of NC and their response was:

.....we do not recommend fruiting cherries for our climate... some sour cherries can be grown but the good fruiting varieties cannot be grown with success. sour cherries are also good host plants for several disease and insect problems.....

so I have 3 of these cherry trees on mail-order. if I need to cancel, I will but thought I'd get you all's opinion on it. I already planted 16 apple trees last november, the cherries would be planted in the same orchard.

That made no mention of apples. Did you infer some connection between the apples or cherries from that, or did they mention apples somewhere else in the email?

sorry, I wasn't clear. They already know I have a small apple orchard because I have been talking to them about that.
When they said: "sour cherries are also good host plants for several disease and insect problems" they were referring to my mentioning that I planned on planting them in my existing apple orchard.

I would still suggest you follow up. Sour cherries are stone fruits and apples are pome fruits and I for one have never seen a disease in common between them. So I would say unless you get more concrete facts out of them in terms of specific diseases or pests I would ignore their advice.

Scott

The ag agent in our county is and always has been a joke. They have the diploma but don't know squat. Remember, they're from the guvmnt and they are here to help you. The position came up open several years ago and a very successful local farmer with an ag bs from UC Davis who really knows his stuff applied so he could work at a less physically demanding job in his older age. He got beat out by someone from out of state - career guvmnt with fancier degree. All guvmnt works this way.

I didn't know we even had ag agents here in California. All I ever see are the master gardeners. Now some of them do really know their stuff inside and out, but I don't think it is the same thing. I thought it was all part of California being the only state I ever heard of that did not offer low cost soil testing through the extension. Maybe you have to be a professional farmer before you are worthy of an ag agent's attention.

I've been educating myself differently. I read books, garden forums, talk to experienced gardeners (and farmers, too), try things out, join interest groups, and even take a formal class now and then. I don't know nearly as much as I'd like, or nearly as much as would be useful, and boy do I keep making mistakes, but every year I know a little bit more than I did the year before.

It would be nice to have one expert to go to for all my garden answers, but I suspect that no such creature exists. Fortunately I have come to know a lot of people who know a lot about their own area of interest and are willing to share that knowledge.

Rosefolly

You wrote:
"When they said: "sour cherries are also good host plants for several disease and insect problems" they were referring to my mentioning that I planned on planting them in my existing apple orchard."

I think you connected dots that aren't there.

Cherries, both fruiting and flowering, have lots of disease problems where I live also.

But people plant them anyway and wonder why they require annual dormant sprays. Even if sprayed, they will become diseased and die before their time.

Hello all, thanks for chiming in. I am following up. The ag agent and the master gardener are one and the same here in our county. This isn't the first time I received info that I found hard to digest and always eventually end up doing my own research and talking to folks like you, our country's best resource: the people behind the shovel. I will clarify that they definately were referring to the cherry trees as hosting diseases that might affect my apple trees. That being said, you're right about it being hogwash since apple and cherries are quite different and suffer from different diseases. The bottom line is I am going to plant the cherry trees in my orchard and see for myself. And maybe in 3 or 4 years someone in my zone will ask the same question and I can tell them straight up whats up!

The "master gardeners" in my area are all oriented exclusively towards landscape gardening. When asked about edible plants, they refer to the California Master Gardeners Handbook, which is full of outdated generalizations at best.

I live in New England and I just ordered cherry trees to add to my "fruit salad" garden. There was no mention of not planting them near other fruit trees and I plan on planting mine in with my apple trees as well.

Ag agents and their assistant agents in the areas of several states I am familair with used to be great sources of practical information. They were in agricultural areas but with urban areas so they (at least among them) knew both. I think the agents now more know about big farming and the master gardeners have taken over ornamentals and home growing of all sorts. Unfortunately, my experience lately has been that with regard to fruits they are merely good indexes for the ag college's bulletins and leaflets, but I already am aware of that information.

I find cherries and also the other stone fruits- plums, peaches, apricots, and almonds that I have tried to be very problematic and after a few years of fruit they have either died of disease or stopped producing. I'm now going toward fruit trees that have very few pests or disease like Persimmons, Paw Paws, and Mulberries. Apples and Pears do very well but over time also get more problems as pests find them, like codling moths and apple maggots.

Fruithack; you said "The "master gardeners" in my area are all oriented exclusively towards landscape gardening. When asked about edible plants, they refer to the California Master Gardeners Handbook, which is full of outdated generalizations at best."

Why do you consider the California Master Gardeners Handbook to be full of outdated generalizations? I'm curious because I just ordered it!