Oh God! It can be frustrating to read people giving advice based on books they've read. There has been so much bad advice given on pruning over the years it is boggling to the mind and a lot of it is published and written by pedigreed specialists. Fortunately things are getting better in the information coming from places like Cornell if you search for advice for commercial growers- the stuff for the home grower tends to be quite uneven. Different cherries have different growth habits and cherries are amongst the most difficult trees to prune to the most productive shape. I struggle to achieve good productivity from a reasonably compact tree but at least the first years don't have to be complicated. It is most likely that your tree will become an open center tree even if you try to maintain it as a central leader, but if you train it originally as a central leader for the first 2 years using the ratio formula I've suggested you will have a leg up producing a productive and compact tree. If you want an open center from the get-go, just plan to cut the central leader to a scaffold after 2 years. Cherry trees usually only need 3 scaffolds to harvest the full 360 of available light. The real goal of pruning any fruit tree in my opinion is to produce a tree with the maximum amount of well lighted fruiting (small) wood and the least amount of structural (large) wood. Basically harvesting the most light with the least "infrastructure".

pam ... let me sum it up for you .... YOU DONT KNOW WHAT COLD IS .... lol it was 48F yesterday .... and last night down to 7F with a 25 mph wind.. -15F wind chill ... ground thawing one day ... enough to let the 6 inches of snow disappear .. no clay here ... and the ground frozen solid today ... QUIT worrying about dormant plants being.. what you call cold ... until you get below zero .. which most likely wont happen in z8 .. and if it does... YOU WILL HAVE A LOT OF OTHER PROBLEMS TO WORRY ABOUT .... other than your darn trees... lol ... 78 of 80 .. good work ... and perhaps it didnt register ... but forget about a couple hot days.. this time of year .... ambient AIR temp is not relevent .... its SOIL TEMP .... worry about a week long heat wave.. but a couple days ... most likely isn't going to warm the soil significantly .... as noted .... the wetter and colder the better .. subject to your hands aching from being too cold .... in spring.. if the soil is workable... and soil freezing is past .... its time to plant .... for me .. that is april in z5 .... i will still get frosts thru late may ... and maybe even a snow in april .... but the ground will not refreeze .. so again ... ambient air temp is not an issue with dormant trees .... a very hard late frost can be a problem .... but it isnt worth worrying about ... IMHO .... all you have to worry about .... is that bare root stock gets into soil or medium ... they are NOT to be left standing in water for too long .... TIMING IS EVERYTHING .. and mail order sources mail them at the proper time ... the good ones do anyway .. lol ... just get it done... good luck ken

Cuddy, That's a tough loss. How many are you having shipped this go-round? Your pic indicates a high desert climate. What's your annual precip and have you had a soil test done? Austrian pine are not particularly xeric, especially when establishing. I tried something similar last year on a much smaller scale, with Doug fir, Ponderosa and Pinon pine. They were seedlings I potted up into 1 gallons in Tapla's mix, then buried in a holding area. We had a cold snap in April that froze tulips, followed by 104 degrees the first week of June. I lost all but one Ponderosa seedling. I found it very difficult to accurately monitor the moisture in the pots and compensate for the drying winds and altitude.. Lesson learned for me was to not order more at one time than I can plant in ground and properly care for. I do think the plants coming from different climates than mine had an impact, too. Is there a county extension service in your area that sells seedlings? That would be a great place to start finding the right trees for your area. If the plants are coming anyway, I would skip the potting and plant them in ground. Better luck to you this time!

open package ... bring sharpie or ball point pen .. write name on smallest leaf .. rip open bottom of plastic ... set in half inch of water ... in a pail .. set in garage to keep cool.. if temps spike.. basement.. to keep cool... see above re keep cool ... the roots do NOT need water .. they need to stay MOIST .. not submerged for a week ... if the pail is kinda empty of plants.. and they fall over ... after everything is in it.. wad up some newspaper ... and let it soak up the water.. and cover the roots ... then add a LITTLE more water ... roots need air.. so you need to open the box.. you need to break the plastic wrap.. and you can NOT leave them submerged ... easy as pie .. nummmmm ken ps: in the alternative.. leave him a 5 gallon pot with damp media ... and after writing the names on the plants.. and unwrapping them.. he just pots up.. in one whole gob.. the whole mass ... and let the damp media keep the roots moist ... its up to him.. whether he can master plain water.. or you would feel better with him messing with some media in ONE pot ... this would be called HEELING THEM IN ... in a pot .... they could stay like this for the rest of the summer.. if the crowns were at the right height ...[in the pail.. a week or two ...]