This slender spindle orchard system produced high yields early in the orchard’s life because of minimal early pruning. There are many challenges to growing sweet cherries in the eastern United States, but several horticultural advances, including high-density plantings, dwarfing rootstocks, and new varieties, are encouraging more growers to consider sweet cherries. Problems like high tree mortality, bacterial canker, low yields, big trees, and rain cracking face cherry growers in the East, said Dr. Terence Robinson, horticulturist at Cornell University’s agricultural experiment station in Geneva, New York. “All of these problems together have discouraged a lot of growers from producing sweet […]