What is the best pollination tree for Meizao cherries (what pollination tree is suitable for cherries)

Big cherries must be paired with pollinated trees to produce high yields , and there are many varieties of big cherries, which can basically be divided into three major varieties: early, mid, and late.

When choosing pollination trees, we must select those that have a strong affinity with the main cultivated varieties, have the same flowering period, produce high and stable yields, have relatively strong resistance to adversity, and are relatively delicious and easy to sell, that is, varieties with certain economic value as pollination trees .

If your main plant variety is Mei Zao, what kind of pollination tree should you choose? Let’s first learn about Mei Zao.

1. Characteristics of Meizao

Mei Zao cherry was one of the main varieties grown in our greenhouse in the past. It is an imported product, a mid-ripening variety introduced from the United States. The skin is red to purple-red, the flesh is red, relatively thick and crisp, beautiful, juicy, sweet and sour, resistant to cracking, and relatively resistant to transportation.

We used to cultivate a lot of them here, especially large cherries in greenhouses or warm sheds, such as Mei Zao, Hong Deng, Ming Zhu, Jia Hong, Zao Lu, and American No. 1, which were mostly used in early maturity cultivation.

These varieties are accepted and liked by everyone for their early maturity, high yield, large fruit, bright color, excellent quality and resistance to fruit cracking, so they were cultivated more in those years.

2. What kind of pollination variety is best for growing Mei Zao cherry?

Whether it is Mei Zao or other big cherries, since most varieties have low self-fertility or self-fruitfulness, even if there are varieties with a strong self-fertility rate without pollination, if you pair them with pollination trees, it will help increase the fruiting rate and yield, so it is more reasonable to plant big cherries with pollination trees .

The pollination trees we select must not only have good affinity with the main cultivated varieties and coincide with the flowering period, but also have good yield and quality, and produce a large amount of pollen .

I don't know how many pollination varieties you choose, but we usually choose more than 2, and match the pollination tree with the main planted tree at 20%-30%.

If the main variety we grow here is Mei Zao, we usually choose Mingzhu, Jiahong, Rainey, Labins, Pioneer, etc., and you can choose 2-3.

If you only plant one Mei Zao variety that is not suitable for pollination, you can also use the method of high grafting of fruiting branches to solve the pollination problem.

That is, graft 1-2 pollination varieties on the top of each Mei Zao tree, and graft about 4 fruiting branches for each pollination variety , which can also solve the pollination problem.

However, this method is a bit troublesome and is not as convenient as directly using pollination trees.

Finally, let me give you a suggestion. As far as we are concerned, red varieties such as Mei Zao are no longer popular, and yellow varieties are quietly rising.

Moreover, the prices of Mei Zao are higher than those of other varieties, such as Jiahong, Rainey, etc. Even the old varieties such as Hongmi, Huangyu, etc. are more expensive than Mei Zao and Hongdeng. Therefore, it is a bit outdated to plant Mei Zao again.