How to plant a cherry tree...maybe

(update: this little tree has 3 cherries on it! The big Montmorency has zero. We may have picked a winner! Variety is Carmine Jewel "extremely hardy, deep purple fruit)

Hello, Lori Fiechter here on the warmest Indiana day we've had in 2.5 weeks. Don't take my word for it--that is straight from the weatherman's mouth.

Anyway, it was a fine day for flower shopping and tree shopping. We are down to one tart cherry tree--a Montmorency. The other tart cherry we planted last year died. Never grew at all. We are trying one more time--if this tree dies, we'll just plant another peach there! Our Amish neighbors have a small selection of trees for our area so we picked out one today and Stan planted it. When it came time to prune the new tree, we disagreed. Stan said I pruned the tree too severely last year and that's why it died. I said fruit trees need to be pruned back a lot when they are first planted so that the energy can go to their roots. He won. I hope he's right...

 The most important thing about planting a fruit tree is to dig a deep enough hole--you'll notice on the video that Stan had to enlarge the hole to fit the roots. Fill it with loose soil, water and stomp out all the air bubbles. Fertilizer spikes made especially for fruit trees would be a good idea. I used some Miracle grow in the water....and then later read that that is not a good idea for the sensitive roots. Read directions first! I also sharpened the Felco pruners--AFTER Stan pruned it. Let's say today wasn't my finest gardening moment...

Also--the Saturn flat peach is just pink and pretty now--calling all bees! Please! Still don't know if all the blossoms froze or not. Fingers crossed that we'll have a peach crop this year--we have 6 trees!