Prunus Serotina - Wild Cherry

just.wing.it

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Curious if anyone has tried to use this species for bonsai purpose? The lady who lived in my house before me planted one under a large maple tree, in an area with basically no sunlight. The tree has looked the same for 3 years, about 3 feet tall and weak. Never blooms anything either. I'm considering digging it up and putting it in a large nursery container, where I can slowly begin to revive it. It has a cool bend in the bottom of the trunk from being smashed down by heavy snow and ice. I'll post a pic later today. Any thoughts are appreciated!
 

rockm

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Yep. Have had one for years. Not an easy species. They drop branches easily, attract all kinds of bugs and generally have long internodes and big leaves.

They are mostly not worth collecting because they tend to be uninteresting. Bark is usually smooth and gun metal grey with little variation. Not many interesting trunks either--usually straight or with no interesting bends twists, etc.

I collected the one I've had for 15 years or so because it was an exception to all of the above. It's bark was rough like a pines and it's trunk had been repeatedly broken by pickups driven by drunken teenagers.

That said, they're easy to collect. You can measure out six inches from the trunk and saw off all the root s and remove in one shot. However, once you get the tree growing in a container, pruning in springtime or later will result in dropped branches and possibly an entire trunk. I pruned in late winter to avoid that.

This tree is a "pioneer" species that grows rapidly and changes constantly if something harms it or its damaged. It tends to abandon old sections of trunk and branches completely in favor of push sprouts from the base or from completely new areas of the living portions of the trunk.
Blooms are sporadic in a container and aren't typical cherry blossoms, but are racemes, like wisteria only a lot smaller. They're nothing special.

Additionally, this species is a favorite of tent caterpillars. If you have those in your area, they will find this tree and attempt to defoliate it--as they often do full-sized Black Cherry trees. While their wild counterparts can recover, a newly collected tree two or three years into training might not...
 

just.wing.it

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Yep. Have had one for years. Not an easy species. They drop branches easily, attract all kinds of bugs and generally have long internodes and big leaves.

They are mostly not worth collecting because they tend to be uninteresting. Bark is usually smooth and gun metal grey with little variation. Not many interesting trunks either--usually straight or with no interesting bends twists, etc.

I collected the one I've had for 15 years or so because it was an exception to all of the above. It's bark was rough like a pines and it's trunk had been repeatedly broken by pickups driven by drunken teenagers.

That said, they're easy to collect. You can measure out six inches from the trunk and saw off all the root s and remove in one shot. However, once you get the tree growing in a container, pruning in springtime or later will result in dropped branches and possibly an entire trunk. I pruned in late winter to avoid that.

This tree is a "pioneer" species that grows rapidly and changes constantly if something harms it or its damaged. It tends to abandon old sections of trunk and branches completely in favor of push sprouts from the base or from completely new areas of the living portions of the trunk.
Blooms are sporadic in a container and aren't typical cherry blossoms, but are racemes, like wisteria only a lot smaller. They're nothing special.

Additionally, this species is a favorite of tent caterpillars. If you have those in your area, they will find this tree and attempt to defoliate it--as they often do full-sized Black Cherry trees. While their wild counterparts can recover, a newly collected tree two or three years into training might not...
Wow, thanks for the info. I was worried about the roots, and potting it. I read that this species has a very long taproot. How about pruning? Will a healthy tree recover from severe pruning during dormancy?
 

GrimLore

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Any thoughts are appreciated!

Here if you keep them out of direct sun and damp they grow nicely and you see them throughout nature trails and forest type areas. We had a few that we pulled and they grew nicely. We lost all of our deciduous this past Spring so I can only tell you based on 2 - 3 seasons of growing them. They are commonly called Wild Black Cherry. They also do not flower and then leaf out unlike other Cherry Trees. They flower after the leafs are showing a little later in the Spring. They grow well in filtered light similar to potted Maples in the North East. All in all they can be a nice tree taken care of correctly. Ours were just grown out but from what I saw the leaf size was ok in proportion to the plant size but would need reduction on smaller plants.

As any other fruit tree they do require treatments for insects, trimming, and most time copper fungicide but that is just part of the fruit tree game.

Grimmy
 

rockm

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Wow, thanks for the info. I was worried about the roots, and potting it. I read that this species has a very long taproot. How about pruning? Will a healthy tree recover from severe pruning during dormancy?
You can do just about anything to it. They're weeds. I lopped off the top 25 feet of mine in the woods, sawed off all the roots, dragged it back to my house, barerooted it with water from a backyard hose and put it into a growing container all in three hours. Tree pushed new buds in three weeks...
 

just.wing.it

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You can do just about anything to it. They're weeds. I lopped off the top 25 feet of mine in the woods, sawed off all the roots, dragged it back to my house, barerooted it with water from a backyard hose and put it into a growing container all in three hours. Tree pushed new buds in three weeks...
That's what I'm talking about! Cool.
 

jk_lewis

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They also will get every known leaf spot, rust and other disease known to man, are very susceptible to borers, and their leaves are full of cyanide. Enough wilted black cherry leaves if eaten will kill a horse.
 

rockm

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They also will get every known leaf spot, rust and other disease known to man, are very susceptible to borers, and their leaves are full of cyanide. Enough wilted black cherry leaves if eaten will kill a horse.
Yeah, how could I forget the borers. Eventually you will see large patches of brown snottish looking sap oozing from various places on the trunk of your tree(particularly if you've dug a trunk of any size and substance). The ooze is the tree's response to invaders inside it. Borers will attack your tree from exposed wood--like chop sites old wounds, etc. They eat the dead wood inside up to healthy tissue, then start eating that, wounding the tree. The tree makes tons of that resinous sap to try and overwhelm the critters. Doesn't usually help and that sap ooze can intensify after a good rain. Not much you can do about the borers except pry into holes and pull them out and squish them. Systemics won't do the job completely. .Fumigating the trunk can do the job, but that is nasty work.
 

jk_lewis

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I'd leave it be. It's so skinny it will take 5 years (at least) to amount to anything, and that kind of a bend in the trunk isn't very attractive, anyway. Add to that it is a poor species for bonsai, anyway, you can more profitably spend you time elsewhere.
 

just.wing.it

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I'd leave it be. It's so skinny it will take 5 years (at least) to amount to anything, and that kind of a bend in the trunk isn't very attractive, anyway. Add to that it is a poor species for bonsai, anyway, you can more profitably spend you time elsewhere.
I generally agree, the main reason I wanted to move it at all is because it is completely shaded out by 70 foot tall trees all around. It has not grown at all in the last 3 years. It just stays like that, brings back the same 2 dozen(or so) leaves each year. I'm surprised it's alive honestly.
 

GrimLore

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I generally agree, the main reason I wanted to move it at all is because it is completely shaded out by 70 foot tall trees all around. It has not grown at all in the last 3 years. It just stays like that, brings back the same 2 dozen(or so) leaves each year. I'm surprised it's alive honestly.

They grow just fine in shaded areas and do ok in sunny locations after they are established. Chop up the soil around it to aerate it and toss it occasional fertilizer. Mulch it in as it would be naturally in the wild. Pretty certain doing that will net you some good results leaving it right there.

Grimmy
 

just.wing.it

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They grow just fine in shaded areas and do ok in sunny locations after they are established. Chop up the soil around it to aerate it and toss it occasional fertilizer. Mulch it in as it would be naturally in the wild. Pretty certain doing that will net you some good results leaving it right there.

Grimmy
Thanks!
I think also, it struggles because it's planted 4 feet away from a 50 foot tall red maple. Possibly the roots have to compete for water and nutrients.....
 

rockm

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Thanks!
I think also, it struggles because it's planted 4 feet away from a 50 foot tall red maple. Possibly the roots have to compete for water and nutrients.....
They're not competing. It is a light issue.

A 50 foot red maple's feeder root are going to be 15-30 feet out, not four feet from the trunk...
 
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