Grafting Black Cherry (Prunus serotina)

Hi all,
We have a number of small black cherry trees here on the homestead---most are 5-8' tall.  This winter, I'm thinking about grafting them with some sour cherry varieties. However, some of the things I've read in other places seem to suggest P. Serotina is not compatible with the domesticated cherries.

Does anyone have experience doing this and can share insight?

Also, like other grafts, I assume I can do this in Pennsylvania (Zone 6, USDA) till the buds start popping in April.  I was thinking of doing this in early February.

Thanks!

You up probably shluld wait for warm weather march-April.
Prunus Serotina van have compatibility issues apparently, but I mistook one for a pin cherry and I grafted one with every stone fruit in the book, almost I'll update you.

If you have pin cherry or choke cherries it's probably better.

I just got a chance to try some wild black Cherries & they are actually pretty bitter when raw. Not anywhere near as bad as Chokecherries can be, but still noticeably bitter. Their fruit isn't as large or as firm as domesticated Cherries, either. They have a tendency to want to burst all over. Like, it was squirting juice out of the stem hole when I picked it.

I don't know if any of that has anything to do with why they wouldn't be compatible with one another, but I'd understand if it did. They are extremely closely related species, so it might not be be like having one species of tree growing out of another, but like all one tree, and if that's the case, it might just end up not being capable of producing completely different kinds of Cherries from the same tree? I'm curious now, though.

Black cherries and chokecherries both have their good and bad varieties, and soil can have an effect too. For instance, I know of an absolutely awful chokecherry bush, but the one next to my garden has fruit that is delicious for eating fresh, a little like sweet cherries with a touch of astringency. I suggest one course of action is looking around and tasting these wild cherries until you find an individual you actually like.

With domesticated varieties you can taste any given one and it will probably be relatively tasty (or tasteless...) and that is because they were selected as the best out of a variety of individuals. You can do the same with most wild fruits, because there is such variability in the yields and palatability of each of the fruits, as with domestic seedling fruits. I know of wild grapes, for instance, with very excellent yields and sweet fruit, and also vines that barely ever fruit. So to conclude this little tangent, it’s also a (good) option to select out of natural variation.  

After grafting 17 varieties and species onto a prunus Serotina, 1 survived, and well!
My only complaint is that cultivar varieties often produce enough hormone to suppress suckering, this does not, but as an interstem, it doesn’t need to.

I believe it is a Mirabelle plum, but it’s possibly a myrobalan plum cultivar, and it’s definitely on prunus Serotina, I checked that a lot! (Leaves in last photo)

This was taken in fall 2024 with almost 2 seasons of growth, not any care since July 2023, when I cut off all the other branches with grafts, fortunately it was one of the lowest branches on the tree.
I will try to get new photos now

Mirabelle on prunus Serotina:
(Possibly a myrobalan cultivar)

I should be embarrassed about the lack of pruning, but I am in Russia now and getting back and forth from the US is not easy.

In any case you should be able to see from second to last photo here, that the branch above the yellow flag (Mirabelle plum) is still holding leaves, and obviously different from all the other branches.

https://growingfruit.org/t/prunus-serotina-success-grafting-plum-on-timber-cherry/74045/6

Trav Puteshestvennik where are you located and can you send scion wood of the plum variety that succeeded in grafting? I wonder if you think any myrobalan plum would work? Did you try out some other closely related species yet?

Paul Vid wrote:Trav Puteshestvennik where are you located and can you send scion wood of the plum variety that succeeded in grafting? I wonder if you think any myrobalan plum would work? Did you try out some other closely related species yet?

Yes I can send some this winter, or at worst ask if my dad's friend could send it, he has the original tree or trees, there are three, that are suspected to be suckers off of the biggest one, but they're obviously the same species with the same fruit, Mirabelle, maybe a delicious myrobalan cultivar..
Unfortunately there is bad news since it didn't make it through the second winter, and I think that's due to "self pruning" or delayed graft failure. I hope that I will be able to get another graft on that tree, and I will try it as an interstem this time, hopefully that will provide the needed hormones to be a dominant branch on the tree, I just need to decide, what the best candidate for that is, maybe I'll just choose my best vigorous grower of the prunus trees I have.

Also, Capulin Cherry has been tested with more success, but that's for growing Zone 6 and up, maybe 5 with the right cultivar.

Also I've got to check this little guy, there were two grafts making it when I left, it will be interesting to see how they are when I get home. Santa Rosa plum and Red Haven Peach have hope too. This is out of 19+ species and cultivars tested, check the growingfruit link in my above comment for more details.