Maybe you should amend the soil and mulch. I know you were talking about throwing good money after bad, but amending the soil will be useful if you ever pull those trees out and mulch will either be plastic and last you many seasons or you will put some organics down and when it decays you will have a higher humus content in your soil and it will hold onto the water better. Hell you could even work some of that cross linked polyacrilamide gel into the soil to hold onto the water really well, I would imagine that it would be worth your time to get a little auger and drill 50-100 10" deep holes and add the granules to them if it meant less time watering. Mycorrhizal fungi might also be of some help since mostly what they are good for is increasing a plants drought tolerance by expanding the reach of the root system.

I think that it could be that the Gisela rootstocks are better for a cooler climate. That are good here in Western Washington.

Fruitnut--

Sorry your experience hasn't been good. Fortunately, mine has been considerably better. I have two cherries on G-5. They have put on about a foot or more of new growth each year, have born consistently since the 2nd year, with good size fruit. My stella (also not one of your favorites) has been in the ground four years and is settling in at a little over 10', which is perfect for me and, I suspect, many other hobbyists.

As the crow flies, I'm probably not too far from you, in the desert, but I am 3,000 feet higher, in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. All my trees are on a drip and each tree gets approximately 15 gallons a week.

I'm certainly not questioning your experience, but simply suggesting, as somebody here likes to point out, your mileage may vary.

Don

I feel for you, Fruitnut. Sometimes I think the "story" is more important than the "facts". Gisela is native to Germany, and how similar is that to Texas, annual temp specs asside? Gm61/1 gets little press and doesn't spec out well in the trials I can find on the net, but DWN isn't stupid, and GM61/1 has been awesome for me in Cen Cal. Loquats should be dead meat with my winter lows, but are native to the mountains of China ( I'm at 3000') and survive if not thrive for me. Hang in there with the cherries!

Gisela 5 works fine in Maryland but it is usually plenty wet here. In fact I have found all my cherry rootstocks working fine - Mazzard, Mahaleb, Gisela 5, Krymsk 2, GM 61/1 all growing well.

Scott