Sweet Cherries
Commercially, the growing of sweet cherries is confined almost entirely to Kent, though years ago good cherries were grown in Buckingham, Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford.
Cherries for years were grown in Kent on grass, with sheep grazing regularly. The result was, and is still, in some cases, that the sward is kept really short while the trees get the animal manure that they need. The alternative on a small acreage would be to use geese. Cherries do best as standard trees and this does enable regular grazing or regular mowing to be carried out. Another method of successful manuring is to cut the grass regularly with a mower, such as a Haytor, and to allow the grass cuttings to rest on the ground as a sod mulch. Meat and bone meal should be applied in February at 2 oz. to the sq. yard, or 6 cwt. to the acre, and dried blood at an ounce to the sq. yard, or 2 cwt. to the acre, early in March. Soot can be used instead of dried blood at 4 oz. to the sq. yard, or ton or so to the acre.
Generally speaking, the caterpillars, and the black aphides, can be controlled by spraying the trees with a tar-oil wash in December. Leaf Scorch, recognized by the fact that the leaves fail to drop in the autumn. Leaf Spot, recognized by small circular-spot ‘shot holes’ in the leaves.
The planting of cherries on a large scale must be regarded as a long-term investment. Great care has to be taken to provide the right pollinators, for without the correct inter-planting, the trees will not crop. Before, therefore, embarking on Commercial Cherry Growing, the reader would be well advised to consult Mr. S. R. Dixon, ‘Cambridge’, Teynham, nr. Sittingbourne, Kent, the Cherry Advisor of the British Association of Consultants in Agriculture and Horticulture. It is possible, on a small scale, to plant sweet cherries as fan-shaped trees against a wall or fence 20 feet apart.
One has to take care always to plant at least two so that the one may pollinate the other. Napoleon and Amber are two popular varieties because the one pollinates the other and vice versa.
It is better never to disturb the roots of cherries and thus in gardens the sedge-peat mulching system is adopted and in farms a grass sward is established. With cherries it is best to get the sward down as early as possible even if it means hoeing shallowly around the tree in a circle 3 feet across or so for the first two years, so as to prevent the grass robbing the young roots of moisture and food as it is trying to establish itself.
