Cherry
Wild Cherry or Gean (Prunus avium) is an attractive element in mixed broadleaved forests.
It is vigorous when young, relatively resistant to squirrel damage and potentially the producer of valuable high-quality timber on short rotations. It is essentially a lowland species in Britain and is intolerant of exposure. The species has an ill-deserved bad reputation for disease susceptibility and poor form which is largely attributable to the fact that, until recently, no improvement work had been undertaken. Also the sweet cherry, grown for its fruit. is the same species (Prunus avium) as wild cherry and stock of unknown quality is often unknowingly planted in forest plantations.
Horticulture Research International (HRI) is leading tree improvement work in cherry and working collaboratively within the BIHIP. The first commercially-released improved trees, the 'Wildstar' collection, were launched in 2000. The Northmoor Trust hosts two trials for HRI.
CHERRY (Prunus avium) CLONAL TRIAL (P95)
An HRI trial to assess the suitability of micro-propagated material for forestry. This trial is a collection of clones selected for good form timber production and disease resistance. The performance of the clonal material and their uniformity will be observed and compared to the seed material. 'Micro-propagated' refers to the method in which these trees were grown in test tubes from fragments of leaves from the parent trees.
CHERRY (Prunus avium) CLONAL TRIAL (P98)
This clonal trial was planted to assess the performance of the superior clones and their suitability for inclusion in H.R.I's breeding programme which was started in 1989. It includes some of the Wildstar clones and the next generation of improved material.
CHERRY (Prunus avium) PRUNING EXPERIMENTS
Two separate experiments have been set up by rthe Northmoor Trust to study different aspects of cherry pruning. A height pruning experiment was initiated in 2000 in the P95 clonal trial which had completed its original objectives at that time. The experiment is testing the effects of different pruning heights on the growth habitat and vigour of the different clones. Another experiment was initiated in 2000 to study the relationship between wound occlusion and stem diameter.
