Help Getting Cherry Seeds

[Robertt]

Hi there guys.

I have been turning the internet inside out since yesterday looking for seeds of two cherry varieties: Stella Cherry and Western Sand Cherry (prunus besseyi).

I could only find sites that sells shrubs, and they don´t ship outside the US.

I could find a couple of sellers on ebay that got seeds for Stella and also for Prunus Besseyi, but they also don´t ship outside the US.

So I am asking you please, help me get those seeds.

If you are from the US, you could buy them on ebay, then you ship them to me he down here in Brazil.

I can send the money for the seeds and shipping via paypal, no worries. I know this is a big favor to ask to someone I have never seen in my life, but I know there are some good helping people out there.

Looking forward to hear from you, all the best.

 

[Tetters]

Welcome to the forum @Robertt. As you can see, I`m in the UK. Do you know anyone else who grows these trees? Every cherry contains a seed

 

[Robertt]

Hi there Tetters.

I have just discovered that I can´t grow cherries from seeds, only from shrubs cut from the mother tree...

I have found a couple of sites and ebay sellers that have the shrubs, but they don´t ship to Brazil.

If I am not mistaken, there is a seller from UK selling Stella shrubs, but he does not ship to Brazil too... Why is that, is there any law in the US and UK that forbids you guys of shipping plants abroad?

 

[Chuck]

Plant and plant products are prohibited import into Brazil by the government of Brazil.

 

[Tetters]

Well that is not right. The pip in the cherry is the seed. Wherever I`ve had cherry trees they drop fruit all over the place, and I`ve had loads of baby trees I had to weed out. Shrubs are propagated by cuttings, or layering - but seed is the way for trees.
You can grow apple trees too by collecting the pips from the fruit. We grow tomato varieties from seed collected from store bought fruit too. Try it!
Plants need passports too - it is a way of preventing diseases to spread from country to country.....and we`ve all had enough of diseases at the moment

 

[Tetters]

Your alternative would be to buy locally grown trees, which may have been grafted.

 

[Robertt]

@Chuck

Hi there buddy. I checked here, it is not prohibited, I just need to get an authorization first from the ministry of agriculture (or something like that). I have to ask permission first and explain what it is that I am importing, and they will say yes or no, otherwise I get a fine,

Now I have to find a good samaritan seller who is willing to help me... And ship a Stella shrub to me, here IF I get the authorization. Do you know someone who could do that? Of course I am paying for this.

 

[Robertt]

@Tetters

Someone told me that If I plant the seed of the cherry, let´s say from this Stella variety that I Want, the fruit will be sour, will be something else, that I need a shrub that was made using a piece of the mother tree.

 

[Chuck]

It sounds prohibited to me if you have to get permission from the government. I don't know of anyone who has cherry trees as they do not grow in Texas. I read your post to @Tetters. When you grow a tree from seed it takes a long time for the tree to reach maturity. Somewhere between 6 and 10 years is how long the tree has to grow before it can start to fruit. When it does fruit the fruit may or may not be the same as the fruit from the seed. You actually need a cutting off of a tree and that cutting will be a clone of the tree it was taken from. With cuttings you can start getting fruit within 2-5 years. It is also very important that your chilling hours are correct for the type of fruit tree you have.

 

[cntrlwagdnr]

This may sound like a dumb question, but why those two specific varieties? Don't you have plenty of other cherries in Brazil?

 

[Robertt]

@cntrlwagdnr

There are a couple of native cherry varieties, but it is not the same thing. I wanted a very sweet cherry and a self pollinating one that would thrive here. From what I researched, the Stella has low chilling requirements per year, it would do just fine here in my city.

 

[NigelJ]

I suspect that if these varieties were growable in Brazil they would be being grown commercially and probably available as plants.

 

[Robertt]

@NigelJ

Or perhaps no one knows about it, or did not bother...

We got 2190 hours of winter here, where I live gets pretty cold at night til dawn, easily between 0 - 6 celsius. If Stella needs 400 hours of chilling or so, it would do fine here.

The problem is getting the shrub... The main reason they are not grown here must be the damned bureaucracy involved to import this stuff, seeds are easier, but as I have learned recently, no one will risk growing a cherry tree from a seed, which takes several years to mature and give fruits, only to find out the cherries are sour.

 

[cntrlwagdnr]

Interesting. Here in the high desert (technically shrub steppe) we have lots of cherry orchards in the Yakima Valley and North towards Wenatchee. Temperatures are up in the 90F 's and often well over 100F in summer. (35 to 40+ C) In winter it gets down in the lower 20F to sometimes 10 or even 5F. (-7 to -15 C). And we get high winds and occasonal dust storms. Our son had orchards with Bings, Vans and Rainiers - all sweet eating cherries. But if it gets cold at the wrong time they have to heat the orchards, either with smudge pots or wind machines, as it can damage the buds. He took most of them out and replaced them with more grapes (juice grapes, not wine grapes, though we have lots of wine grapes and wineries here.) Cherries are actually not that easy to grow, as so many things can affect the crop. Even a little rain when they are ripening off will make them split. They hire helicopters to blow dry them! Crops vary so much from year to year. A couple of years ago was the last straw for him. He had a beautiful crop of Rainers and the packers would not take them because the were too big! They didn't want to bother to fresh pack and were making maraschino cherries! The price was so low it wasn't worth paying to have them picked. Before I retired, I used to visit Embraer in Sao Jose dos Campos quite often, also their flight test center in Gaviao Peixoto - a lot of orange groves.... and ant hills! 45 minute flight on their shuttle but 4 hrs drive between the two locations. Nice freeways, but seemed like it cost more in tolls than gasoline.

Seems like this is a labor of love for you. I think I would just buy my cherries! Good luck.