We have a cherry tree that the municipality gave us as a "share the wealth" idea. It has several different cherry types, as they grafted different branches on to the stalk. We have not had much luck with the cherries, the most it has produced is a dozen cherries in one season since we planted it 9 years ago. There are several branches that get the tiniest cherries on them, not much bigger than a cherry pit. Could they be a normal type of cherry, or is my cherry tree lacking in something? My husband wants to remove the branches with the tiny cherries in hopes that the bigger cherries will start to grow instead. We also have some white spots on the trunk...not sure what they are.
Do the branches with small cherries originate lower than the ones with larger fruit? If so, they might belong to the rootstock; although that would imply a rather high location for the graft. The white spots do not appear to be a problem.
It is the largest branch coming off of the root stock that produces the small cherries, so actually one of the lowest branches. Adding a few more photos of the tree...the wire and ribbons are protecting the few cherries that we do have.
It's not clear to me where the graft union is, but it appears to be above the large branch shown in the second photo. My guess is that the grafted branches are the small ones at the top of the tree, and all of the lower branches are from the rootstock. If that is the case, than all of those lower branches should be removed, since they will eventually dominate the whole tree and inhibit the growth of the grafted branches. You can see that this is happening in the last photo. If that large branch on the left side is the one with the small cherries, it definitely needs to be removed, along with any branches below it.
To think that your cherry tree has produced only a few cherries in 9! years makes me think that maybe you should consider replacing it. Your photos indicate that you may have room for more that one carefully selected dwarf fruit tree. You can be certain you won't be making pie from that cherry any time soon.
After removing the branches that belong to the rootstock, the grafted branches will grow far more vigorously than in the past. You should see a large increase in fruit production in two years because cherries fruit on two year or older wood. For maximum effect any new shoots that develop below the graft union should be removed as soon as they are noticed. You should also note that different cherry varieties may show differences in growth vigour. Judicious pruning is required to keep the growth balanced.
