Author Topic: Strange Royal Lee Cherry behavior  (Read 3295 times)

BestDay

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 860
  • Long Beach, CA 10B 22
    • View Profile
Strange Royal Lee Cherry behavior
« on: March 20, 2018, 12:19:03 PM »
Hi all, here are some pictures of my Royal Lee and Minnie Royal Cherries planted at the end of 2015.  They have grown like weeds and have been pruned back every winter.  Last year I got about 3 fruit off the Minnie Royal.  This year the Royal Lee is blooming before the Minnie Royal and it has fruit!  Strange thing is, I thought the Royal Lee needed the Minnie Royal to cross pollinate?

Bill






SoCal2warm

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1554
    • zone 10 and zone 8a
    • View Profile
Re: Strange Royal Lee Cherry behavior
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2018, 02:06:37 AM »
Were there any other stone fruit trees in the surrounding area? It might be possible another variety of stone fruit provided the pollination.

The main reason they say that Royal Minnie is the only pollenizer for Royal Lee has to do with the timing. (Although if you have enough cherry trees there can still be considerible overlap in bloom time even if they were all other cherry varieties)

CA Hockey

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 428
    • Orange, CA 10a
    • View Profile
Re: Strange Royal Lee Cherry behavior
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2018, 12:25:58 AM »
My trees do the same. I can’t remember which blooms first but Both reliably set fruit even when the other has no booms. I have lots of stone fruit though. No blooming cherries yet (lapins graft looks like it’s pushing and 6gm25 trees are growing but not blooming). I do have pluerries and cherry plums also.

K

BestDay

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 860
  • Long Beach, CA 10B 22
    • View Profile
Re: Strange Royal Lee Cherry behavior
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2018, 10:31:31 AM »
There is a Long Beach peach right next to it that has been blooming. So that must be it. I didn't know that other species of fruit could provide cross pollination. I thought it had to be a cherry. So I guess I would recommend a Long Beach Peach to anyone that is having problems getting their MR RL combo to bloom together.

Bill

BestDay

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 860
  • Long Beach, CA 10B 22
    • View Profile
Re: Strange Royal Lee Cherry behavior
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2018, 11:55:27 AM »
There is also a Tango Tangerine and Reed Avocado blooming right next to the Toyal Lee. Can these cross pollinate with the Royal Lee?  Or only other stone fruits will cross pollinate with it?

Bill

SoCal2warm

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1554
    • zone 10 and zone 8a
    • View Profile
Re: Strange Royal Lee Cherry behavior
« Reply #5 on: March 23, 2018, 02:28:01 PM »
Haha, not likely. Those aren't even closely related.

CA Hockey

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 428
    • Orange, CA 10a
    • View Profile
Re: Strange Royal Lee Cherry behavior
« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2018, 11:24:35 PM »
There is also a Tango Tangerine and Reed Avocado blooming right next to the Toyal Lee. Can these cross pollinate with the Royal Lee?  Or only other stone fruits will cross pollinate with it?

Bill


Cherry, plum, apricot, nectarine are closely related and can hybridize through cross pollination (Pluot, aprium, plumcot, pluerry) and can be multi grafted onto the same rootstock, much like citrus.


AnnonaMangoLord45

  • LeafyMango
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 296
  • I love Mangoes
    • SoCal zone 10b
    • View Profile
Re: Strange Royal Lee Cherry behavior
« Reply #7 on: April 09, 2018, 01:39:26 AM »
Get the Royal Crimson, there is too much of a gap between a royal lee and a minnie royal cherry. Royal crimson fills the gaps in between, as well as being a low chill cherry.

SoCal2warm

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1554
    • zone 10 and zone 8a
    • View Profile
Re: Strange Royal Lee Cherry behavior
« Reply #8 on: April 09, 2018, 02:25:42 AM »
Cherry, plum, apricot, nectarine are closely related and can hybridize through cross pollination (Pluot, aprium, plumcot, pluerry) and can be multi grafted onto the same rootstock, much like citrus.
Well basically. It's a little more complicated than that though. There can be very low fruit set and most of these cross species hybrids don't tend to be very vigorous I would imagine, and there are other issues having to do with chromosomes, but too complicated to get into here. Some prunus species are easier to hybridize together than others. For crosses like peach x apricot embryo tissue culture has to be used because the seeds don't have the vigor to germinate by themselves.
« Last Edit: April 09, 2018, 02:59:19 AM by SoCal2warm »