I had bought two different varieties of cherries from Walmart for > eating and planted the seeds in a planter here in South Carolina. I > have one sapling growing from all the seeds I planted. It is about 3.5 > to 4 ft. in size and is approx. 12 to 15 months old. It has a semi > round jagged leaf. It now has leaves on it but there were no blooms. I > can identify a wild cherry but can not confirm that what I truly have > is a species of an edible cherry tree. Is there somewhere I can > reference the leaves of edible cherry trees for identification? If > this is truly a cherry tree I want to transplant it in my yard. Will > it grow in South Carolina and how do I maintain it? Thanks from anyone who can point me in the right direction!
Fruit characteristics of seedlings unpredictable. After having to wait for sexual maturity to be reached and fruiting to commence, may find them too small and poorly flavored. Better to devote resources to purchasing and establishing grafted specimens of named varieties of known attributes. Your state Extension Service probably has information on what is involved in growing sweet cherries in your region.
Hello Ron B, Before I make much effort at all, Id like to be able to identify that it is indeed a cherry sapling. How can this be done?
Here's how I see it: a sweet cherry seedling wouldn't be worth the risk of growing on only to probably discover the fruit is no good, so if having a good fruiting sweet cherry is the entire focus of the project it doesn't matter what the identity of the seedling is. Otherwise, go someplace where they have sweet cherry trees and compare the leaves etc. of yours with those. Side-by-side comparisons of samples of the parts of similar trees can't be beat for quickly showing any differences there might be.
