Growing Cherries in the polytunnel

[JayTee]

Does anyone grow cherries in their polytunnel, I grown Blueberries Grapes and Strawberries under cover with good results and I'd like to try cherries, any info such as variety would be welcome also what other fruits do you find grow better in the tunnel, I've tried Kiwi fruit and Sweet Corn in the past

[nickdub]

I grow them in mine - no particular problems so fa,r though I may struggle to limit the trees size sufficiently - we'll see as the trees get bigger, tallest is about 7' at the mo.

[JayTee]

how long have you had them in the tunnel nickdub, do you think they produce more than if planted outside

[nickdub]

The trees are about 5 years old but the tunnel only 3 - I built it over them.

I'd say the trees produce fewer cherries than they would outside but I get to pick some, which I don't usually from my outside trees as the squirrels, birds etc take them all. They also crop earlier of course, being warmer in the Spring.

If I was starting again and designing an ideal system I'd plant dwarf trees of several varieties in the open ground, buy some large second hand poly tunnel hoops to go over them, then just use netting to keep the pests at bay when the fruit was ripening.

Open ground is easier because you don't have to worry about pollination or irrigation - at least where I live.

Happy gardening :-) Nick

[JayTee]

OK thanks for the info Nick, I was thinking of dwarf trees or try fan training, like you say the birds can't get at them, I found that with the blueberries plus I think the blueberries produced way more fruit in the tunnel

[nickdub]

You're very welcome - my feeling is netting is cheaper and likely to be longer lasting than polythene as long as its stored carefully when not needed, so if the extra warmth provided by a poly-tunnel is not needed then a really big netted cage is the way to go.

[jdlondon]

I just got a You Garden catalogue in the post today, and just saw there's a bush cherry called Porthos, grows to a height of 1.5 - 2m.

Tempted by it myself as the problem is my cherries are too high up to harvest, but I thought it might be easier to handle under cover instead of training a tree.

[nickdub]

My tallest cherry tree is about 40' now. I lose almost all the crop to pests, but I did manage to keep a few on there this year. To harvest them I just used a long handled lopper and cut the last 3' or so end of the branches off - as cherries fruit mostly on new wood, this isn't quite so bonkers as it sounds, though it is less than ideal. I did get to eat a few cherries :-)