Cherry Tree Question

[David M]

Hi All,

I've got a couple of cherry trees and after about 8 weeks of no rain whatsoever, they've just started to ripen nicely...and now we've had about 2 weeks of nothing but rain. I wasn't fast enough to pop up the rain covers (I still need to find some plastic large enough!) so I've suffered some split fruit. Luckily, they weren't all at the absorb water stage so all is not lost.

This leads me to my question...What on earth do commercial growers do?!?! The chances of not getting rain for the whole ripening period is pretty much nil...so do they really cover vast cherry orchards in plastic?

[Lesley Jay]

Hi David, after having a look online, commercial growers do cover their cherry trees over. Trees are grown grafted on to dwarf root stock so that they can be grown in large tunnels and there are also bags available to growers so that they can cover their trees.

[David M]

Thanks Jay. Sorry, yes, I could have had a look around first. I was just thinking about a PYO near us that doesn't have covers....based on our experience, they're going to be decimated by this rain, poor guys.

[Lesley Jay]

Originally Posted by David M

Thanks Jay. Sorry, yes, I could have had a look around first. I was just thinking about a PYO near us that doesn't have covers....based on our experience, they're going to be decimated by this rain, poor guys.

Hi David, don't be sorry!! I really enjoy having a "Google"!!!