YouGarden Duo Fruit Cherry Bare Root Tree - Stella & Sunburst

These incredible duo fruit trees have been meticulously grafted by highly skilled nurserymen, to create two different trees growing on one rootstock. What's more, the rootstocks are dwarfing meaning that your trees will always remain compact.

You will get two different varieties of fruit from one tree so are perfect for anyone who loves the idea of picking their own home-grown fresh fruit, but has limited space. Each of the varieties will produce bumper crops of delicious full-sized fruit. Because they are already trained into a V shape, they are perfect for growing up a wall

Varieties

• Cherry Stella - 'Stella' Cherry is 'Self-Fertile' (which means it does not need a second variety of cherry tree to pollinate it) and is a really heavy, reliable cropper because it has good resistance to late frosts. Unlike most other sweet cherry varieties, it will thrive in slightly exposed locations but can also be grown in a pot on your patio. The sweetly flavoured dark-skinned, plump and juicy, aromatic fruits will be ready to pick from mid-July each year and from the third growing season onwards you can expect upwards of 5kg (11lbs) of sweet fruits per tree, which will save a small fortune compared to paying supermarket prices.
• Morello Cherry - Often referred to as the best cooking cherry, its sharp flavour makes it perfect for making delicious pies, cakes and jam. The fruits are packed with juice and the skin colour is dark glossy red. It is one of the most reliable croppers of all the sour cherries because it is self-fertile, late flowering and so less susceptible to frost damage.

Specifications

• Supplied as a bare-root, grower quality tree, grafted on a single rootstock with 2 cherry varieties
• Availability: October - March
• Planting time: September - June
• Flowering time: April - May
• Fruiting time: July - August

Top Tips

Birds will quickly strip the ripening cherries from the tree - drape netting over cherry trees to protect the fruit from birds.

Care Information

• Best grown in moderately fertile soil in full sun. Also perfect in large pots on a patio - 30cm diameter or larger and keep well watered.
• Shrub roots generally tend to spread out rather than down, so dig a planting hole 3 x wider than the roots of the shrub you're planting, and mix some well-rotted compost or manure with the soil from the hole and use this to re-fill one the shrub is in place.
• We've found that a square hole is better than a round one as the new roots, once they reach the edges tend to grow in a circle round the circumference of the hole whereas when they reach the corners of a square hole, they find it easier to grow through.
• Before planting soak container-grown shrubs thoroughly and allow to drain.
• Remove the plant from its pot and tease out a few of the roots.
• Add Mycorrhizal fungi to the roots when planting to help plants establish quicker.
• Place your shrub in the hole at the same level at the pot.
• Refill the hole with the earth removed (backfilling).
• Firm in the soil with your heel, avoiding the root ball, water well.
• Mulch around the base of the plant with a collar, compost, gravel, bark etc.
• Apply a slow-release fertiliser such as blood fish and bone in early spring, and mulch to retain moisture, about a month before flowering.
• Established trees don't require radical pruning to keep them fruiting, just take off any diseased, dying and damaged branches, (the three Ds) in spring. Look at the overall shape and aim for an open structure of branches and remove any that cross over so they don't damage each other. Trim longer new shoots back mid-summer for better-shaped trees.
• Harvest crops as soon as they ripen. Avoid leaving windfalls or overripe fruit on the ground.
• Don't forget the tree guards as rabbits can strip the bark overnight.