Prunus sargentii life span

10 years ago

Prunus are known to have disease and pest issues thus having an impact on their life span.

I thought Prunus sargentii and Prunus maackii where the exception to the rule. I planted a P. maackii about 9 years ago and its quite stunning now. The bark is losing some of its lustre though.

Now its time to plant a P. sargentii. I stumbled across a description by the Bernheim Arb calling out its life span as 20 years. Which seemed very short lived. I few other sources called out this life span as well.

http://bernheim.org/explore/arboretum/bernheim-select/sargent-cherry/

I found a excerpt from Donald Wyman that one of the first Prunus Sargentii brought to the states was still growing at the age of 46 years old at the Arnold Arboretum. Surely I could call them up and find out when it croaked or if there is a new one growing there.

I wonder if they are shorter lived in warmer zones? Any thoughts on this?

I'm not expecting to plant a Prunus and get 60 years out of it but 20 years means its time to find another selection.

Just talking generalities here...not exact numbers.

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Comments (9)

tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
10 years ago
You must have seen one you liked. ;-)

Mine was 8-10 feet tall when I bought it in spring of 2001and it shows no sign of decline. Some issues with branching structure that I missed when I got it, but otherwise its doing well.

tj
Embothrium
10 years ago
Sargent cherry lives long enough to get big (80' tall in the wild). Seattle arboretum plantings of this species date back as far as 1940, I haven't looked at tags of these there recently but probably the same individual(s) are still present (as recently as 2005 at least 17 examples were in the collections there).
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"subgenus" may be more appropriate (or maybe not, taxonomists have put both sweet and sour cherries into the subgenus Cerasus). All these different cherry species are very closely related, if one wants to consider them different species. This is one example where the line separating different species is not a clear one. It could even be possible to consider the different cherry families as subspecies. After all, if they can freely interbreed and hybridize with each other, can they not be considered members within the same species? (by this definition we could divide all cherries into only 2 groups: those with 16 chromosomes and those with 32) Or one could attempt to divide cherries into different families: Sweet cherries (P. avium), sour cherries, Black cherries plus Capulin native to the American continent (put into same group), and Asian flowering cherries. Perhaps better classification could be provided if taxonomists utilized multiple degrees of species relatedness/separation, because it is ambiguous whether some of the different cherries should be classified as entirely separate species or subspecies within a singular species, neither of which would be wholly accurate.
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unless you just have a jones to use your saw ... then i would suggest waiting until spring to see if and how it buds out ... full sun plant.. the shape of yours.. sure makes it look like it trying to grow out of too much shade ... which might mean tree root competition ... you cant really compare 2 trees in your yard .. its not safe.. to presume they should act the same ... too many possible variables ... imo ... they are short lived in tree time.. 10 to 20 years max.. is the usual ... ken
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arbordave (SE MI)
10 years ago
Whaas,
We planted about a dozen Sargent cherries roughly 20 years ago. I haven't noticed any major concerns with pests or diseases, but they don't appear to be very compatible with their rootstock. Most of them have large swellings under the graft union. Not sure if any nurseries are growing them on their own roots, but that would probably help promote longevity.
Embothrium
10 years ago
Liable to be on sweet cherry.
medamana
10 years ago
I have a 10-year old Prunus sargentii. It's at least 25 feet tall, healthy and doing well. I live near coastal NJ
whaas_5a
Original Author
10 years ago
All, thanks for the feedback. I'll give one a shot. Blooms and fall color on one tree make it worthwhile.

I called the source and its budded to Prunus avium, but they called is Mazzard Cherry which is the sample thing I believe.

That fact its grafted to Prunus avium...would that change anyone's opinion as to its lifespan?
Embothrium
10 years ago
Look until you find one raised from seed or even a cutting. In addition to possible delayed graft incompatibility there is the possibility of the aforementioned ugly differential between the diameter of the sweet cherry stem and the stem of the Sargent cherry, as well as likely issues with emergent roots and suckers - here in western USDA 8 sweet cherry root-stocks are often a nightmare in parking strips and other turfed or paved areas.
j0nd03
10 years ago
A visual aid to the potential difference in scion/rootstock sizes - and it can get worse than this! However, I think this amount would warrant removal in your yard.

The tree in the pic is an ash IIRC
Embothrium
10 years ago
Rooting of the scion via slow burial with soil might be possible. In addition to the bulging stock becoming obscured it might have the benefit of getting the scion onto naturally oriented roots - the lopsided appearance of the stock makes it appear it is in the too common deformed condition resulting from overly long confinement to a small container.

Prunus sargentii life span

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tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱

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Prunus sargentii life span

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