Cherry of the Rio Grande

[FMfruitforest]

Last February I purchased and planted a Cherry of The Rio Grande in ground. I mixed compost, bone&blood meal, and some all purpose fertilizer in the soil before planting and had high hopes from the little plant. Well after 10 months in ground the plant has hardly moved. It has all its leaves and doesn't appear stressed but I feel it's unhappy. Is zone 10a southwest florida climate not ideal for this tree?

[9B in Brazil]

Cherry of the Rio Grande comes from the South of Brazil (Zones 9-10) in semi-deciduous forests where organic matter and mulch helps.  These trees can grow up to 10 meters tall.  partial sun to full sun.  They are generally planted in native soil in Brazil, but since you put amendments it, it is likely working to build root structure.

[FMfruitforest]

Do you know if the Rio Grande Cherry are slow growing when young? I purchased my tree as a 3 gallon an put it in ground right away. Still it has yet to really grow much at all.

[roblack]

hopefully the root system is where all the growth has been taking place.

probably won't see much growth till the spring. then it should get going.

[Johnny Redland]

I had the same problem with a few trees, but after 2 to 3 years once those roots get to where they need to go, they blow up. I recently had one Lychee tree on my property that was significantly behind the others and even looked sub par, however just recently it’s just exploded.  Sometimes certain trees take much more patience than we anticipate based on previous knowledge

[FMfruitforest]

Thankyou for the responses Im going to give it another year and see what all it will do.

[Coach62]

I’m in naples and had the same problem. 2 years of nothing, then it died. I’m thinking there may be some not so good genetics out there. Also, they may not like our alkaline soil, but I haven’t looked into that. If I get another one it will be from a top notch nursery.

[pineislander]

Search CORG and you will find several threads. This one can take some chill but seems to suffer in heat. That sounds like a good candidate for cooler parts of Cali, maybe north Florida.

[spaugh]

My COTRG likes the heat and full sun. 

Sounds like the original poster may be over ammending at time of planting.  Esecially if it is in heavy soil.  Need to let it get some roots before fertilizing a bunch. 

[NewGen]

I've had mine for over 5 years, first in the ground for 2 years, nothing was happening. I then put it in a wine barrel container, that's the last 3 years, put out more branches, healthy looking leaves, not a single flower or fruit. It has been mostly in partial sun. I must say that neither cold (30 F) nor hot (105 F) bothers it. I'm planning on moving it into full sun in the spring, hopefully I"ll get it to fruit.

[WGphil]

Mine is about 14’ high and planted in shade 
 
Crops are medium to light and not as fruitful as Suriname

[jez251]

Mine was planted one one side of my yard and eventually started getting yellowing leaves or outright leaf drop, and just overall did not look good at all. So I moved it a different section of my yard under the canopy of a jujube tree and it recovered nicely. Gives plenty of fruits now. Sometimes the local soil conditions in one part of your yard are the issue. That same are where I had the CORG planted initially doesn't seem to bother other plants I have there now, so it really just depends on the species.

Jaime