Semi-Dwarf Chery Tree is HUGE!

Silly me I was under the impression that semi-dwarf fruit trees stop growing at the size indicated in the fruit tree catalog. I planted a sweet lapins cherry tree about 5ft away from my compost bins. 3yrs later the cherry tree which was supposed to be 10-12' I thought is now over 16' tall and still pushing forward at an impressive clip. I like the idea of Fukuoka's no prune techniques and I have followed them as best I can. My cherry tree after I planted it received no pruning at all. It looks very much like what Fukuoka indicates a natural growth pattern should be. My question to everyone else out there is has anyone else just let their semi-dwarf trees go? If so how large did they end up?

Prune.

I had a semi-dwarf apple tree outgrow its space and tried to reduce it by pruning, but it looked so sad afterward I decided to remove it.

After a drastic pruning it takes a few years to look good but it works on all the trees I've done it with.

When you planted it, did you plant it below the graft?

Karl

Yup I planted it below the graft. That's a good thought. I should go check it again to make double sure.

similar situation with dwarf pear trees, they are well over 18' tall and are still babies ! Because of late frosts in the spring I lost the buds on most of my fruit trees but there were 2 pear buds that produced, one fell off when I was a little rough trying to show someone..dang..but ONE made it to ripeness and it was fantastically flavored I'm really looking forward to a harvest next year !!

possibly we are just giving them different care than they are getting in those controls that they base the sizes on?? with our permie gardens.