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Prunus Cultivar: Mazzard (silverbark)

Cultivar Name: Mazzard (silverbark)
Type Cherry Rootstock
Synonyms 'Silver-barked'
Patent Not Patented
Usage Rootstock
Seed Available Seed available from Foundation Plant Services
Soil Adaptation Mazzard does well in a wide range of soils, however, as with other cherry rootstocks, it does not perform well in poorly drained or wet soils (more tolerant in wet soils than Mahaleb).
Climatic Adaptation Reasonably cold hardy but not as much as the Gisela series.
Resistance Traits Resists root-knot nematode, moderately resistant to oak root fungus. Susceptible to crown gall, bacterial canker and root-lesion nematode, scion doesn't show buckskin infection as quickly as Mahaleb
Graft Compatibility various sweet cherry varieties
Propagation Notes seed, FPS Recommended Method: 24-36 hour soak in water, 120 day stratification, crack seed before sowing.
Propagation Method Seed
Anchorage Excellent
Suckering Medium
Description This is the original traditional Prunus avium cherry seedling rootstock and produces a very large standard cherry tree, with a mature height of 20ft or more. It has been in use for centuries (if not millenia) and is compatible with all current cherry cultivars. Wild cherry rootstock best suited for sweet or tart cherries planted on hearvier soils. Makes a larger tree than P. mahaleb. More tolerant of wet soils, but still requires good drainage. Very hardy but not quite as hardy as P. mahaleb. Growers in the Northwest have a long tradition of planting Mazzard rootstock because it is well adapted to our soils, is winter hardy and there have been no cases of incompatibility. With its high vigor and moderate productivity, premium fruit quality can be readily obtained. Unfortunately, Mazzard lacks precocity, often not coming into production until the sixth leaf or full production until the twelfth. Vigorous growth makes it difficult to control in high density plantings and the large tree size reduces picker efficiency. Regarding silver-barked strain: Garner and Grubb (1938) state that in Europe the silver-barked mazzard, native to the Harz Mountains of Germany, makes particularly good rootstocks, producing large and long-lived sweet cherry trees. Some preliminary experiments were made with this stock, brought to the Davis Station by Dr. Howard in 1925. Downer seedlings and silver-barked mazzard were compared. In an orchard test of Downer and silver-barked mazzard seedlings (9 each, planted alternately in the row) the latter were much the larger at the end of 3 years, when they were pulled by tractor. The average circumference of the Downer seedlings was 5 inches, and that of the silver-barked mazzard was 6% inches. Even the smallest of the silver-barked seedlings had a more extensive root system than the largest of the Downer seedlings.
References
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