Is anyone growing these new low chill varieties. I know they can produce in Texas but the real questions is "can they take the heat?".
Minnie Royal and Royal Lee Cherries in Texas
I'm not growing the cherries, but I'm growing low chill apples bred for south Texas as well as peaches developed for south Florida, low chill plums, nectarines and apricots from a local nursery. She gets fruit on her mature trees.
I didn't know there were low chill cherries. I will have to look into it!
I bought one of each of these trees last January or February. One of them survived the downpour that we had early in the year - the other drowned. The one that survived the swamp-like conditions in my back yard has also survived the heat/drought conditions this past summer, although it hasn't grown anywhere near the size of the other new fruit trees that I planted at the same time (possibly because I planted lemon grass too close to it and the grass ended up growing taller than the tree! I've since gotten rid of the lemon grass.)
I hope to be able to buy a replacement for the tree that I lost - and I plan on digging out the survivor, dumping about half a yard of good soil in that area, then replanting it. I figure that I'll plant them on a mound tall enough so they won't flood during our occasional monsoons. LOL
This image shows the newly planted "island" with the two cherry trees and the lemon grass. You probably think I planted the trees too close together, but I had taken classes at Urban Harvest on "High density home orchards" - where you plant 2, 3, 4, etc. trees 18-24" apart and grow them as one tree. (Unless you're planning on getting a lot of produce to sell. This method is strictly for people who want a small amount of different varieties of fruits.)
Here's an image of what the island looked like over summer. (from a different angle) If you look closely, you can see part of one of the cherry trees - it's engulfed by the lemon grass - within the purple box.
Here's a closer view of the cherry tree - what's inside the box.
Did it look sad or has it steadily lost folliage during the summer and now has fewer leaves than before?
I did try a cherry before and it died a slow death due to heat over the course of 18 months.
I think because of the lemon grass, it didn't grow as large as it probably should have this first year. This is what it looks like as of this morning. Note that there are small branches (and leaves) pretty much only on the right side of the tree. I think this is because the lemon grass just blocked out most of the sun. It doesn't really bother me, though, because I'd have to prune the left side anyway, since that's the side where I'll be planting another cherry tree (and, due to the closeness of the trees, they'll be treated as one single tree).
If you look at the staked trees to the left (and behind) the cherry tree, you'll see the difference in the heights. Those are three different types of pear trees, and although they were about twice the size of the cherry tree when I planted them last year, they've grown considerably larger than the cherry tree. To the right and behind are two apple trees (you really can only see one in the photo), and they, too, have grown quite large in less than one year.
And, btw, pardon the mess in my gardens. I haven't gotten out there to clean those pine needles out of the gardens. My neighbor (to the right of the photo) has about a dozen pine trees that drop year-round. We've whacked off some of the branches that are over the property line, but some of the larger ones are just too high up to reach (even the arborist we had out here a few weeks ago didn't want to tackle trying to take them down - especially since he's not allowed to go onto their property without their permission.... which they'd probably never agree to).
lol Attack of the lemon grass!
I was pondering planting fruit trees "too close". Good to know there's a name for it... Looks like that's going to be a pretty little hummock in your yard, even if maybe there's less quantity than a commercial orchard operation.
cr0ak, there are 2 different rootstocks available to these two cherry trees. One for sandy soil and the other for heavy soil.