Cherry Sliva

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Vishnesliva - half-cherry, half-plum - returns to the gardens

These man-made plants are obtained from crossing sand cherries, possibly felted cherries with a special group of plums - Chinese and American.

Features of cherry plum

But we must immediately make a reservation that although the fruits of cherry plums are similar to cherries, in their origin they are closer to plums and even apricots and peaches than to real cherries, therefore they are even singled out in a separate group - micro cherries. Their distant relationship with real cherries is evidenced by the impossibility of crossing with them, and incompatibility with vaccinations.

Interest in cherry plums is associated, first of all, with their late flowering, and hence the possibility of avoiding frost. For family gardens, they are also interesting for their low growth - usually they are low (1.5–2 m) trees or even bushes, and early maturity - fruiting begins already in the second or third year after planting.

Cherry sliva is self-fertile, it blooms very late, so it is necessary to pick up (plant or plant) late-flowering pollinator varieties for it. For many varieties, this is Opata, and for almost everyone, it is the sand cherry itself.

The cherry plum fruits are medium-sized (12-15 g), not that very tasty (although they are quite acceptable for Siberia and regions with limited gardening), with a characteristic astringency inherited from sand cherries. They are very good for canning (compotes, juices), making jam.

Cherry plums are winter-hardy, but their trouble, like most plums from the American and East Asian groups, is in the peculiarity of the rhythm of development: during thaws, they prematurely leave the state of dormancy, which leads to damping out of the bark at the base of the stem and premature death. Therefore, cherry plums are more suitable, albeit harsh, but even, without thaws, regions of Siberia and the Urals. And if they even freeze here, then the small size of the tree allows them to be grown in a creeping form.

In the middle lane, cherry plum suffers so much from diseases (moniliosis, clusterosporiosis - sharke) and podoprevaniya that its cultivation is possible only with the use of special agricultural techniques and, above all, the use of plum, blackthorn and cherry plum varieties resistant to podoprevaniya as stem formers. And they also do not tolerate heavy waterlogged soils, preferring sandy and sandy loam. With this in mind, prepare a seat for them, and even better if it is a small mound.

The first such cherry plums from the crossing of sand cherries with Chinese and American plums were obtained at least a hundred years ago in America by the breeder N. Ganzen (who, by the way, repeatedly visited IV Michurin). These are Opata, Sapa, Okiya, Cheresoto varieties. They were brought to Russia a long time ago, got beyond the Urals, from time to time there is interest in them in the middle lane, but soon they usually disappear.

Cherry plum varieties

Opata is the best of these varieties in terms of large fruit size and taste. This is a small (up to 2 m) tree, even more likely - a wide-spreading bush with a sparse crown. Begins fruiting in the second year. Fruits weighing up to 15 g are round, dark blue, almost black, juicy, of satisfactory taste, somewhat bland.

Sapa is close to this characteristic, but its fruits are smaller - up to 9 g, with a noticeable astringency and are more suitable for processing. For good pollination, these varieties are usually planted together. Opata and Sapa grew in my garden, but they did not burden themselves with noticeable harvests and soon gradually, somehow by themselves, faded away (most likely due to systematic underpinning) and disappeared.

The Cherezoto variety also has insufficient winter hardiness for our places, and the fruits did not come out with quality: they are small (13 g), have a mediocre, tart taste, and therefore are suitable only for processing.

Later, already on the basis of N. Hansen's varieties, his followers in the USA and Canada received varieties Hiawatha, Chinook, Beta, Miner and a number of others.

The best of these varieties is the Miner. It is a natural semi-dwarf. Fruits up to 15 g, very beautiful, with a peculiar taste that combines both cherries and plums. In the middle lane it blooms annually and abundantly, but does not indulge in noticeable yields, which is largely due to the lack of pollinating varieties (the best pollinator variety is Opata). It is especially interesting for Siberia, where winters, though frosty, but without thaws. Due to its "dwarfism" and good self-forming ability, it is promising for cultivation in a creeping form.

We also have domestic cherry plums, the best of which are N. N. Tikhonov's varieties - Novinka, Dessertnaya Far East.

Dessert Far Eastern (Opata x Manchurian Prune) stands out for its excellent fruits - they weigh up to 18 g, broadly oval, red-violet with a thick gray waxy bloom. The pulp is juicy, very sweet taste with honey aroma. Ripen in September, stored for up to 10 days. But, unfortunately, the winter hardiness of this variety is only satisfactory, and in frosty winters it must be covered with snow. His bush is large, so shelter is difficult.

The novelty (sand cherry x Ussuriyskaya plum) is characterized by high winter hardiness. Fruits are small, weighing up to 10 g, black-violet with a thick waxy bloom. They are juicy, sour-sweet taste with a slight pleasant astringency, ripen in early September. This variety is also promising for creating fast-growing hedges - a medium-sized spreading bush with shiny leathery leaves looks spectacular both in summer and in autumn, acquiring a crimson hue. Due to the reddish color of the shoots, the Novinka variety is quite decorative in winter. High winter hardiness and easy reproduction by green cuttings determined the widespread use of this variety as a vegetative rootstock for most varieties of plums.

Reproduction of cherry plums

Cherry sliva is distinguished by good reproduction by green cuttings and horizontal layering: even branches covered with earth - and they quickly take root. And also cherry plum is propagated by grafting on seedlings of low cherry, Ussuri plum, cherry plum, domestic plum.

Good propagation by green cuttings and sufficient winter hardiness opened up the possibility of obtaining clonal rootstocks using cherry planks.

This work is most successfully carried out at the Crimean Experimental Breeding Station of Horticulture of the All-Russian Research Institute of Plant Industry (Krymsk, Krasnodar Territory). The State Register of Breeding Achievements includes the clonal rootstock VVA-1, created here by Academician G. V. Eremin from the crossing of felt cherry with cherry plum. It can be used to propagate plums, cherry plums, apricots and peaches, which is important in all areas of fruit growing (taking into account, of course, the possibilities of growing grafted crops). Outwardly, this stock resembles felt cherry, but the plant is more vigorous. The rootstock trees are taken out without shelter, frosts down to -40 ° С, roots - up to -15 ° С. Resistant to dense soils, waterlogging and short-term flooding even during the growing season. The root system is well developed, which provides the grafted trees with good anchoring. Does not form root shoots. Trees on this rootstock stand out for their early maturity, high productivity and more stable fruiting than on seedlings. The disadvantages include instability to root cancer, chlorosis, and weak drought resistance.

No less interesting is the clonal rootstock Eureka 99, created at this station from the crossing of cherry plums with cherry plums. It is intended for propagation of plums, peaches, cherry plums. The winter hardiness of its trees is lower than that of VVA-1, but nevertheless G. V. Eremin recommends it not only for the southern zone, but allows its use in the middle zone.

And designers are also interested in cherry plum - its bushes are too good for creating spectacular curb-type hedges. Especially popular is the Cistena variety - a hybrid between sandy cherry and Pissard's red-leaved cherry plum.

According to my observations, there is an increased interest in cherry trees in the middle lane, and they quickly spread throughout family gardens, then soon (apparently, due to the death of plants) interest weakens, and they practically disappear from the gardens, but, nevertheless, soon begin to spread again. Well, it's up to you, dear gardeners, to start a cherry tree in your garden or not.

Irina Isaeva, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, www.sad.ru

Author's photo