How to Grow a Cherry Tree from a Branch

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Last Updated on April 26, 2020 by Charlie

Learn how to grow a cherry tree from a branch. While you can always grow a cherry tree from its seeds and nurse it all the way to maturity and adulthood, you can still skip all that process because this article will show you how to grow a cherry tree from a branch in a seamless manner.

You can propagate a cherry tree from a cutting – just by cutting a branch of the parent tree and going away with it for the intended purpose. Most people, however, purchase the entire infant tree from a nursery and tender to them until they blossom into a mature tree. But if you love gardening and you don’t have the patience of waiting for seeds to germinate, then this article is for you.

By the way, if you love hybrids, you should know that cuttings offer one of the best ways of getting hybrid fruits – the offspring plant taking after another similar plant without bearing an exact resemblance with the parent plant it was taken from. 

Cherry Tree Varieties

Cherry trees come in two varieties – the tart and the sweet cherry. They belong to the family of the stone fruit and they are most times referred to as “sweet and sour cherries”.

The former is bitter and while the latter is sweet in taste. Both appeal to different individuals in taste and they are both beautiful while oozing out lovely fragrances to the environment that holds them. They are wonderful trees with fruits that are colorful and great for your taste buds. This article will highlight the process of growing a cherry tree from a branch instead of seeds. 

The Following Steps Below Is a Guide on How to Grow a Cherry Tree from a Branch

You will need:

• Pruning Shears
• Medium pot or a fabric pot (Smart Pot)
• Peat moss mix

Step 1: Cut a branch of cherry from a mature cherry tree that is luxurious and healthy. The cutting should be a least 8 to 10 inches away from the tip of the branch. The branch in question should be bearing healthy leaves with 2-4 leaf nodes and ensure the tree is below 5 years of age. Always cut from younger branches using a sharp, sterilized pruning shear. 

Step 2: Rid the branch of its leaves from the bottom and then peel the bark on both sides of the cutting to expose a white layer beneath it known as cambium. This is to ensure that new roots can seamlessly break through the cambium as the old bark is gone. While doing this, ensure the entire job is completely neat and free of dirt. You can place a plastic bag or a newspaper in the background to ensure a neat job. 

Step 3: Insert the end of the branch cutting into a rooting hormone – a chemical used to promote root growth. To do this, you just have to insert the ends of the branch cutting which is, of course, the roots into the chemical medium. Cherries are very stubborn with their root systems so you need a catalyst. 

Step 4: You will need a pot to grow the cherry branch. Get a pot and fill it halfway with peat moss and place the cherry cut out branch inside and fill the pot again with peat moss to the topmost part of the pot only allowing some of the tip of the branch to be visible. You can arrange the peat inside the pot using your hands to beat it into uniform earth. 

Step 5: Watering is of the essence, so water the cherry branch and the peat moss generously. It needs to be moist at all times, never let it stay dry for a long time. You can do this using a spray bottle and watering it twice a day. Preferably once in the morning and once at sunset. 

Step 6: Expose the cherry branch and the entire pot meat moss to ample sunlight of at least 65 F. Then you can leave it for about a month and come back later to check how well the root is faring so far. This whole process should be carried out indoors until its spring before transplanting into real earthen soil. 

Step 7: When transplanting, remove the cherry from the pot and assist the trunk with one hand. Prepare a hole where there is ample sunlight and the soil is well-draining. Then dig the hole wider than the entire size of the tree but let it not be too deep. Lift the tree through its root ball and place it inside the hole. 

Other Things to Note

• You can make your branch cutting from a semi-hardwood or a hardwood parent cherry tree. If you are cutting from a semi-hardwood, do so in summer when the wood is soft and almost mature. For hardwood, you can do the cutting in the winter which is the dormant period by then the wood is hard and mature. 

• You can use a gallon of fine agricultural sand mixed with the same gallon of perlite as peat moss for growing your branch cherry into a tree. 

• For rooting hormones, you can use a hormone powder containing synthetic auxin.

• It is best to grow your cherry branch into a tree from softwood or semi-hardwood. This is because the softwood has already gained entry into its maturity stage but it’s yet to become woody. While a semi-hardwood is turgid and approaching it’s maturity stage and is yet to become entirely woody. 

• Cherry trees are infamous for being too difficult in taking roots downwards. To heighten your chances of making progress with the roots, you need to plant or use more than one branch. Multiple cuttings are the key here to succeed with roots. 

• Ensure the garden knife or pruning shear you will be using is well sharpened to avoid hurting the parent cherry tree. 

• The peat pot should be at least 6inches dip. 

• You’ll need a spraying bottle for watering so you don’t get the entire mixture completely drenched. 

• You could start monitoring the progress of the root system after two weeks, but a month is to be certain something has changed about them in a positive direction. 

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