Because these were cut and fitted last year, I was able to get a ladder out and use pvc pipe glue (even in this horrible heat) and get this frame together in a permanent way. It took me very little time, but I'm sweating in sheets right now. Miserable heat and humidity.
This is the Minnie Royale low chill sweet cherry. It is cut low for: ease of harvesting, being able to protect the big leaves from the scorching sun and to be able to net it to keep varmints out. Yes, I use that word.🤪 These are also planted on a hugelkulter bed.
Smaller tree, and it's already unhappy in the sun. This tree is next to the giant pomegranate thicket. It has shade until mid-day and it's still unhappy. I don't yet know if these will produce down here. If you are interested in growing these low chill cherries: I would plant them between two large trees like I did for my persimmon. I have a monsterous live oak on one side of the persimmon and a pear on the other. The persimmon only gets direct sun midday, and it still pumps out fruit.
You can see the Minnie Royal (above) is not as vigorous, and scorches easier, than the Royal Lee
This is the Royal Lee. This is a vigorous grower for me. It takes hard pruning (in the winter) well. If you have noticed I no longer have the apples over here, it was way too hot and there was too much sun for them. I had to move them to a more protected part of the yard. The cherries are now next to a miniature peach. Stone fruit does so much better down here than pomme fruits do.
This guy does not have scorched leaves yet. We're hitting feel like temperatures above 110°. I put banana pups behind this bed to try and get more natural shade, but transplanting bananas this late in the season is hard on the plants. It's also dry over there. I have dripline run to supplement the sprinklers.
I got too hot to put the shade cloth up. I'll have to do that tomorrow. If you would like to see the original posts, and what I did to grow these trees you can find those articles here: What If It's Too Hot? and here: Hugelkulter High Density Fruit Bed
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