PlantFiles: Sour Cherry
Prunus cerasus 'Mesabi aka Mesabe'

This is an extremely tough plant. I bought a four foot tree in a five gallon pot from a local nursery 13 years ago. It lived in the five gallon pot for four years before I was able to plant it in the ground. It grew well for three years, until a very harsh winter with temps at -50F killed most of the top growth of the tree. It kept some life above the graft, and has rebranched quickly into a nice shrub. Just one year after the wipeout winter, I harvested a gallon of cherries. I harvested 2 gallons in 2007.

Mesabi cherry is a semi-dwarf, mostly northern grown cultivar. Slow growing, at maturity should reach 12' x 15' tall and between 15' - 18' wide. Requirements are full sun, well drained soil. The fruit is somewhere between a tart cherry and a sweet cherry - good for pies or eaten alone. Tree is self-fertile and produces fruit in July.

We planted our Mesabi cherry from nursery grown stock in 1997 at approximately 5'. Now, in 2004 it is approximately 9' tall and 6' wide. Other than fertilzation in spring, we did not do any thing else as it was planted more as an ornamental than for fruit production. Yield started with a handful the first year and in 2003 was approximately a 1/2 pie's worth.

Notes on this tree: Infestation by peach borer in 2001. We treated for this and by late season 2002 it appears insects had been destroyed, but devastation to lower trunk remains. I observed in Nov. 2004 trunk is now beginning to split severely where infestation occurred. Showing signs of fungal infection, possibly bacterial canker on one branch. Rainfall in 2004 growing season topped 26" and devastated most of garden as well. Harvest in 2002 was normal; 2003 down, due to excessive rain; 2004 almost non-existent due to excessive rain and cool weather. Since the peach-borer infestation, I've noted that leaves generally turn and drop in August, well ahead of the normal fall leaf drop (normally mid October here).
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May 05 -- This is one TOUGH little tree - that is why I changed my negative to a positive...I thought it would have been dead by now! It's gone through more than its share of problems and just hangs in there! Pictures I uploaded are of this tree in May 2005. Looks like it will be a bumper year for cherries if all goes well!