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Fruit & Orchards

'wild' versions of cultivated fruits

15 years ago

I am starting an orchard this spring that will include apples and cherries. However, in the nearby woods (~50 feet away) there are native black cherry trees and also "escaped" seedling apples growing wild. My question is, do I have to worry about these trees being carriers of disease to my orchard? Or, on the other hand, might they serve as nice cross pollinators of my cultivated trees? Does black cherry even pollinate edible cherry or are they completely different?

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Comments (2)

Embothrium
15 years ago
Yes: the numbers of other, related trees nearby could provide a recurring source of re-infestations of pests and diseases. You might think about removing the pippins (spontaneous apple seedlings) at least. Of course, if there are others all around you on neighboring properties...
robert_2007
15 years ago
Mauthner, We planted a orchard here about 31 years ago. We had wild everything in our woods. I'm glad I did not cut them down. We now graft to them cultivated fruits. Saves us a lot of time in waiting for the tree to become mature. A lot of the wild trees already had a mature root system. Which saved us up to at least five years on some things. Grapes you chip bud ths year can bear grapes for you next year. Plus, the wild trees growing here had proven to be hardy for our area. This spring alone we have used the wild trees next to the orchard to top work Honey Berry, fruiting Cornus Mas, Chock cherry & Pin cherry. Waiting for it to get warmer to top work some wild grapes to Hanson's Red desert grapes. Removing wild trees never stopped our disease problems here. We spray some fruits & nuts some time. But never more then 2 to 4 times a year. Good growing Bob
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