How to Grow and Care for Fruiting Cherry Trees

Prunus avium, Prunus cerasus

I have about zero control when it comes to eating fresh fruit.

In the past I’ve cleaned entire raspberry bushes of edible fruit, snagged a few days’ worth of apples and pears, and passed out with a belly full of strawberries.

That last one caused a stir back in the day!

This dedication to sun-warmed produce by the bucketful places cherries high on my list of favorite fresh fruit.

I was fortunate to grow up near a few cherry trees that were at their peak of production, but since then I’ve helped individuals plant their own trees and may have treated myself to a few of those fruits when they were ripe.

Close up of a batch of sweet growing on tree.

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That’s the gardener’s privilege, right there.

Establishing a healthy tree demands some forethought and proper planning that may be intimidating to the casual gardener.

But fear not! We’ve put together an excellent guide for how to start growing cherry trees. Check out our list of suggested cultivars, too, for our recommended picks.

What Are Fruiting Cherry Trees?

Cherries are stone fruits which produce “drupes,” or fleshy material surrounding a single seed.

They are in the genus Prunus and are closely related to other stone fruits and nut trees such as peaches, almonds, apricots, nectarines, and plums, along with other ornamental flowering trees and wild species.

What Type of Cherry Tree Is for You?

Fruiting cherries are derived from two different species within the Prunus genus.

Sweet cherries (Prunus avium) tend to grow in USDA Hardiness Zones 5 to 7. These fruits are perfect for fresh eating and will produce plenty of fruit each year.

The sweet cultivars are self-sterile, so you’ll need to plant at least two or three for fruit production.

Close up of ripe, red sweet cherries (Prunus avium) growing on a tree. Close up view.
Sweet cherries (Prunus avium) need temperate climates to grow well.

Sweets also require ample spacing to grow without becoming crowded. Your sweets need to be planted 35 to 40 feet apart, although dwarf varieties need a mere five to 10 feet of breathing room.

Sour cherries (Prunus cerasus) will grow in Zones 4 to 6, and are more cold-hardy.

Use these fruits when baking and cooking, but less often for fresh eating (they’re called sourfor a reason!). Most sour cultivars are also self-sterile, so you’ll need at least two or three to produce any fruit.

Ripe sour cherries (Prunus cerasus) growing on a tree.
Sour cherries (Prunus cerasus) are much more cold hardy and are a good fit for much of the continental United States and Europe.

Fortunately, these trees need only 35 to 40 feet of space between one another, while dwarf varieties require about eight to 10 feet.

So, to recap: sweet cherries are for fresh eating and baking, while sour cherries are usually used in baking and are not typically eaten fresh.

Patience Is a Necessity

Most fruiting trees take a few years to begin producing something that’s edible and tasty, and cherries are no different.

Expect a period of three to five years of waiting before your trees start producing fruit. The trees need to establish themselves in their new home and gain a solid foothold before they can begin to produce fruit.

A photograph encompassing most of an entire cherry tree which has ripe fruit hanging from it.

A timeline of several years is all the more reason to get started with planting now!

Whats that? But I love the taste of sour cherries…

Me too! Chances are you’ve found them frozen at the grocery store and labeled as Bing cherries. If you’re lucky, you’ve also been able to find them fresh in the middle of summer at the farmers market, often towards the end of July.

Grow your own and have the freshest crop available for the beautiful window when they’re ripe. With the size of the crop you’ll get, you’ll be able to share them with friends and neighbors too!

Planting Best Practices

Whether you’re planting sweet or sour, both types want similar conditions.

Proper soil is critical to the health of your trees. For some species, you can dig a hole and plop the root ball into it, and let the plant do the rest of the work.

Cherries, on the other hand, need deep and well-drained soil; this can make planting in rocky areas or soils with a high clay content problematic.

I’d recommend digging the hole deeper and wider than it needs to be for the root ball to fit inside. Really break that soil up and replace about one-quarter of the native soil with compost to give the plant a chance to set roots and spread into its new home.

Full sun is important for any fruit tree, so place your plant where it will be sure to get at least eight hours of sun a day. A bit of protection from the hottest afternoon sun can be helpful on the more southern edges of the growing zones.

Sour varieties are at their best in soil with a pH of 6 to 7, while sweet cultivars prefer a pH of 6.3 to 7.2.

They’ll grow in other acidic or basic conditions beyond these recommendations, but prefer this narrow range. Get your soil tested so you’ll have a good starting point before selecting varieties.

Did You Know?

Cherry trees with dwarfing rootstock can also be grown along wires, fences, or walls in a method known as espaliering.

The branches are slowly adjusted so that they grow in a completely horizontal shape, which makes them easier to pick and easier to cover with bird netting.

Espaliering also promotes airflow and exposure to sunlight, which promotes ripening and helps to prevent fungal infections.

Water and Nutrient Requirements

For all of the fruit these trees produce, they don’t require much in the way of fertilizers and water. About an inch of rain per week is ample. Use a rain gauge that sacrifices style in exchange for an easy-to-read and practical setup.

If you’re in a dry spell and aren’t reaching that rain requirement, you can water once a week. However, don’t over saturate the roots and soil; dry roots are healthier than waterlogged ones. A good soaking once a week during periods of dry weather is plenty.

Fertilization is even easier. Because cherries are low feeders, you can get away with any of the following fertilization methods:

  • Use a low nitrogen fertilizer, or a general-purpose fertilizer at half the recommended rate, once a year before flowers bloom.
  • Add twice-yearly application of compost. A light dressing will do the trick.

Easy enough, right? If you like to feed your plants, you can get away with one more application of a granular fertilizer after the plants stop producing fruit.

Pruning and Thinning

Fortunately, you don’t need to thin the fruit, since this is a plant that does that on its own. And that takes a load of effort off your back!

Pruning should be done twice a year, once in early spring (before buds break but after threat of a cold snap), and once in later summer.

The early spring pruning is when you make more aggressive cuts and remove limbs and large branches. This is intended to provide the tree with a few strong limbs for bearing fruit, instead of many weak limbs that cannot support the weight of fruit.

A pair of loppers is being used to cut away weak branches on a cherry tree.
Early spring pruning is a great way to remove weaker branches and to shape the tree for maximum yield.

Late summer pruning, aka “thinning,” is intended to clean up the canopy and to increase air circulation as a preventative measure to protect against fungal infections.

We aren’t shaping the tree during this time and are only opening things up; make only a few cuts when pruning in late summer.

Again, your goals during late winter or early spring pruning are to shape and to make aggressive cuts, and in late summer you want to focus on opening up the canopy for airflow.

Pests

Unfortunately, plenty of critters enjoy cherries as much as we do, so you’ll have to keep your eyes peeled for their presence on your trees.

You’ll have a chance to find aphids, various caterpillars, Japanese beetles, thrips, mites, leafhoppers, borers, and the cherry fruit fly.

You can use a product like a general fruit and nut orchard spray to control all of these buggies.

Select one that contains sulfur to control fungal diseases, and pyrethrins to control insects – but understand you’ll potentially be damaging beneficial insects as well if you resort to this option.

Neem oil is another solution that targets insects. It is organic, but keep in mind that organic doesn’t necessarily mean non-toxic. And it will also harm beneficial insects just like the manmade pyrethrins will.

Disease

Powdery mildew, galls, cankers, a host of rots and fungi, and buckskin are fungal issues and diseases that can cause you grief with your fruit production. These problems are more difficult to identify and control than common pests.

A horticultural oil is good for removing most plant ailments, while copper fungicide is an excellent organic method for taking care of fungal issues and various cases of rot.

Preventing Bird Damage

It’s a miracle birds can take flight after feasting on an upcoming crop of cherries, with their bellies full of partially developed fruit. Worse yet is when they pick and peck at each individual fruit, leaving behind a rotting mass that’s still attached to the stem.

A sparrow sitting in a cherry tree eating ripe fruit.
Birds like this sparrow can pillage your crop in a day or two.

Some methods of preventing bird damage include:

  • Wrapping the tree in bird netting.
  • Tying reflective tape to branches to distract and disorient birds.
  • Using a dummy owl/hawk and move its location daily.
  • Eliminating insects on the branches to deter birds.
  • Installing a birdhouse to attract the predatory kestrel.
  • Planting wildflowers like echinacea and rudbeckia to give birds an easier meal.

No one method works better than the others, so swapping between different preventatives is the best solution to keeping your plants healthy and full of fruit.

Also keep in mind the inherent dangers to wildlife when using bird netting. It’ll keep the critters out, but those hapless ones who get stuck are almost guaranteed to die.

The American kestrel with wings spread and prepared for flight.
The American kestrel eats small reptiles, mammals, and fruit-eating birds. Having a kestrel nearby can deter mouse, chipmunk, and herbivorous bird activity in the vicinity.

I’ve pulled out too many dead birds and chipmunks from bird netting to ever use it at my own home, but it does work to keep your fruit harvest safe from damage.

Another tip with bird netting is to install it just before the fruit begins to appear on your plants. If you install it early and keep it in place from the start of the season, birds are likely to learn how to get inside, essentially making the netting worthless as a barrier.

Ripe cherries on the tree covered by bird netting.
Bird netting applied just before ripening can prevent fruit loss while minimizing the impact to wildlife.

Gummosis

Another condition common in fruit trees and especially cherries is called “gummosis.”

Cherry trees release a resin-like sap when they’ve been injured. Sometimes a yard tool damages the trunk and the tree will react by expelling this thick sap to plug and heal the wound.

Most of the time these injuries are minor, and the tree can fix itself right up.

Close up of a branch in a cherry tree with amber sap emerging from the bark.
Gummosis in cherries can be caused by cut injuries, insect activity, or even some fungal infections.

However, other times the sap expulsion can be caused by borers or cankers.

If you discover sawdust around the base of the trunk and beneath the site of the sap, you likely have borers; spray your tree for borers with an appropriate fruit and nut orchard spray.

If there is no presence of sawdust, pull away the sap and check the bark. If it’s dead and brittle, you’ve got some cankers to contend with. Cut them out and remove them, or call a professional to do it for you in the event that you’re hesitant to start cutting into the wood.

Other causes for gummosis can be fungal in nature, specifically Cytosporina and Phytophthora types of fungus.

These are more serious issues to contend with and require careful removal of infected tissue and an application of a fungicide to control. Get a head start on these issues by removing dead limbs and branches in the winter and disposing of them.

Read more about gummosis in fruit trees here.

Harvesting Cherries

It can take three to five years before your tree will begin to produce fruit, but full-size varieties can produce up to 50 quarts of fruit a year!

Dwarf specimens can produce up to about 20 quarts, so that investment in time and patience will certainly pay off in time.

Harvest time is between May and August, depending on your locality and the cultivars you are growing.

Harvested cherries in a wooden crate held by two human arms.

Determining when they are ripe is a tasty and fun method of experimentation.

Research the varieties you’ve planted to find a good, clear image of what they look like when ripe. As your crop is beginning to ripen, take a walk around the tree, find a specimen that looks ripe, then pluck it and eat it!

Ripe fruits are firm but tender, and juicy. If the cherry you plucked tastes good, use it as your key to decide if others are also ripe.

Close up of fresh dark red cherries growing on a branch.

Try to maintain a bit of patience when harvesting. The sugar content in the fruit rises significantly in the few days before they fully ripen, and this sugar content does not increase after the fruit is plucked.

That makes the best cherry a few days away from being subpar if you’re impatient.

Storage and Preservation

The fruit can be stored for up to a week in dry conditions in the refrigerator, but it declines in quality to a tremendous extent very quickly in room temperature conditions.

A few hours at room temperature results in greater loses than an entire day spent in refrigerated conditions! If you aren’t going to eat your harvest right away, stick it in the fridge.

Female hands uses a tool to remove seeds from cherry fruit.

Leave the stems on to maintain their freshness even longer. Pitting the fruit is up to you; I personally enjoy spitting out the seeds, but not everybody does. You can increase the firmness of the fruit after harvest by layering it between paper towels.

You can freeze your harvest as well, so long as the fruit has been rinsed and patted dry first.

Cherry Tree Cultivars to Select

Although there are perhaps hundreds of cherry tree varieties, we’ve listed a few of most popular for you to consider:

Bing

Bing is a good choice for lovers of the sweet cherry. It has a wide range of growing Zones (5 to 9) and reaches a height of about 18 feet.

Fruit is typically ready for harvest in mid- to late June, but in cooler climates a bit of a delay until the beginning of July isn’t unheard of.

Close up of bing cherries growing on a limb.

Potted Bing Cherry Trees

The Bing type can be paired with Rainier, Montmorency, and other early pollinators to produce fruit.

You can find them at Nature Hills Nursery.

Rainier

Rainier is among the most popular and best-tasting out there, so you likely won’t be disappointed from the huge yields and juicy taste that this type can produce.

Rainier Cherries growing on a limb.

Potted Rainier Cherry Tree

The fruit ripens in mid-June and can grow in Zones 5 to 9. It reaches a maximum of 25 feet in height and is a good choice for medium-sized yards and growing areas.

Rainier pollinates with Montmorency, Stella, and Lambert cultivars, and other mid-season varieties.

You can find them at Nature Hills.

Montmorency

FastGrowingTrees.com has the most popular sour variety in the country for sale, the Montmorency.

A close up square image of a wicker basket filled with freshly harvested cherries set on a wooden surface.

Montmorency Cherry Tree

It will typically grow to about 20 feet in height and is comfortable growing and producing in Zones 4 to 7. As a bonus, it is also self-fertile. If you’ve only got room for one specimen, this could be the one for you!

Carmine Jewel

Can’t decide between sweet or sour? Why not grow both? The Carmine Jewel is grown on dwarfing rootstock and it does well in Zones 4 to 7.

Closeup square image of deep red carmine jewel cherries growing on a tree with green leaves.

Carmine Jewel

This type is a cross between sweet and sour varieties (P. fruticosa x Pr. cerasus) to provide a harvest to satisfy all tastes, with about 20 pounds of fruit produced on average during its peak production! It is also self-fertile, so really, what’s not to love?

You can purchase trees from Nature Hills Nursery.

So, which should you get?

I would recommend purchasing a self-fruiting tree like the Carmine Jewel or the Montmorency if you have a small and contained area to grow in.

If you’ve got the room for more, I’d recommend planting the Montmorency, Rainier, and Bing together to ensure a good yield.

If you live in Zones 2 to 4 and need a cold tolerant variety, see our guide to the best cold hardy cherry varieties.

Like apple trees, cherries have different pollination groups and require other cultivars to be in bloom at the same time.

Quick Reference Growing Chart

Plant Type:Stone fruit (drupe) treeTolerance:Modern cultivars have better disease resistance, heat and humidity tolerance
Native to:Northern hemisphere from North America to AsiaMaintenance:Low
Hardiness (USDA Zone):4-7, depending on species and cultivarSoil Type:Sandy, loamy
Season:Spring and summerSoil pH:Neutral, 6.6-7.3
Exposure:Full sunSoil Drainage:Well-draining
Time to Maturity:As little as 2 years to fruiting for dwarf varieties, 4-6 years for standard selectionsCompanion Planting:Cover crops like clover, lupine, alfalfa; nasturtiums, marigolds, hyssop, and other pest-discouraging plants
Spacing:Standard: 35-40 feet Dwarf: 8-10 feetAttracts:Birds
Planting Depth:Same as nursery pot, or set crown of bare root stock just below the soil surfaceFamily:Rosaceae
Height:16-25 feetGenus:Prunus
Water Needs:ModerateSubgenus:Cerasus
Common Pests:Aphids, tent caterpillars, Japanese beetles, thrips, mites, leafhoppers, borers, cherry fruit fly, powdery mildew, galls, cankers, root rot, fungi, buckskinSpecies:P. avium, P. cerasus

Now Get to Plantin’

It takes a while to get there, but when your cherry trees are finally producing pounds and pounds of fruit, you’ll see that it was all worthwhile. Fresh fruit is always delicious, but fresh cherries are at top of the list for taste and flavor.

Close up of ripe, dark red sweet cherries hanging from a branch.

With self-fruitful (and self-unfruitful) options available, you’ve got plenty to pick from and to look forward to. Thanks for reading! Come back again soon, and leave us any questions or insights in the comments below.

Looking to grow more fruit trees? Try these guides next:

Photo of author

About

Matt Suwak was reared by the bear and the bobcat and the coyote of rural Pennsylvania. This upbringing keeps him permanently affixed to the outdoors where most of his personal time is invested in gardening, bird watching, and hiking. He presently resides in Philadelphia and works under the sun as a landscaper and gardener, and by moonlight as a writer. An incessant questioning of “Why?” affords him countless opportunities to ponder the (in)significance of the great and the small. He considers folksy adages priceless treasures and is fueled almost entirely by beer and hot sauce.
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Kevin H
Kevin H (@guest_4613)
4 years ago

When I was younger there were 2 cherry trees that grew at the end of our road. I remember eating some of the fruit every year, along with a nearby blackberry bush. I still don’t know if they were sweet or sour cherries, but I can only assume they were sweet because the whole road enjoyed eating them!

I also didn’t know that cherry trees are self sterile, so it makes sense that there were 2 trees next to each other.

Thanks for the post Matt, very informative as always.

lolpop
lolpop (@guest_5282)
Reply to  Kevin H
4 years ago

i love cherry tree.

John Airrington
John Airrington (@guest_27854)
Reply to  Kevin H
11 months ago

Just planted our 1st Cherry Tree Bing hoping for the Best.

Holly
Holly (@guest_5514)
4 years ago

do we need to plant male and female trees of the same variety- or can i mix and match a few different female fruiting trees with one male tree near by?

Allison Sidhu
Allison Sidhu(@allison-sidhu)
Reply to  Holly
4 years ago

Good question, Holly. First, cherries are a type of fruit that doesn’t actually have male and female trees. Instead, all flowers on fruiting cherry have both male and female parts. Trees of a different cultivar that bloom during the same period must be planted in the vicinity in order to produce fruit on cultivars that are not self-fruitful. All varieties of sour cherry are self-fruitful, meaning they can fertilize themselves and develop fruit via their own flowers, and some varieties of sweet cherry are as well. Self-fruitful types can also serve as universal pollen sources for self-unfruitful sweet cherry varieties,… Read more »

Bob Warner
Bob Warner (@guest_7130)
3 years ago

What’s the best time to put netting over my cherry tree? I’m in Oxford, MD, on the Chesapeake and as of mid-May the cherries are solid green and half the size of mature fruit. Will it retard growth to put the netting on right now? I’m unsure of the cherry variety; I bought a grafted tree promising multiple varieties but only one survived.

Kim Burger
Kim Burger (@guest_7143)
3 years ago

What time of year should you plant cherry trees? I’m in zone 5 in SE Michigan.

Richard Kenyon
Richard Kenyon (@guest_7208)
3 years ago

Growing up we had two cherry trees, one red the other yellow. And my grandma had a red also. I always looked forward to cherry season. Especially the blooms every spring, they bring back so many memories. Long live the cherry.????

Joan Anderson
Joan Anderson (@guest_9308)
3 years ago

1) I have room for 2 dwarf cherry trees that I can plant 10 ft. apart. If I buy the same kind, will they cross pollinate to produce cherries? (This is my first foray into “farming”.) 2) I live in Nashville, zone 7, clay soil, afternoon sun from noon to sunset. The article I read said to dig a hole twice as big as the root ball and amend the soil in there. Given the clay soil, do I need to dig farther out to amend soil? How far? 3) What variety of dwarf sweet cherry do you recommend? If… Read more »

Allison Sidhu
Allison Sidhu(@allison-sidhu)
Reply to  Joan Anderson
3 years ago

Congrats on beginning your orchardist adventure! Give our roundup of cold-hardy fruiting cherry varieties a read as well – you’ll find several dwarf types in there that should be happy in your zone. Fittingly, ‘Romeo’ and ‘Juliet’ make excellent companions. Dwarf ‘Bing’ trees are also an option, or you might like to try ‘Starkrimson’ (self-fruitful), ‘Compact Stella’ (known as a good pollinizer for other varieties), or ‘Glacier’ (also self-fruitful). Sweet cherries will grow well in your zone, given the conditions they prefer. You will need to plant two different cultivars that bloom at the same time to get fruit, in… Read more »

Ethan Greenberg
Ethan Greenberg (@guest_9821)
3 years ago

Thanks for that rich and motivating piece!
Could you help me understand what are the egg-shaped protrusions on the stems depicted in the attached pictures? They seem to be part of tree’s fiber.

IMG_20200912_120910.jpg
IMG_20200912_121030.jpg
Laura Melchor
Laura Melchor (@guest_9902)
Reply to  Ethan Greenberg
3 years ago

Thank you for your question! It appears that those are the tree’s extrafloral nectaries. They are supposed to be there, and here’s what they do: if your plant is getting attacked by predatory pests, the extrafloral nectaries emit a scent that attracts beneficial insects to eat the predators. Pretty cool, isn’t it? The nectaries are usually greenish or reddish in color (or both).

Sacha High
Sacha High (@guest_10754)
3 years ago

I am so in love with the 4 cherry trees i have growing on my apartment patio! Lol i planted these from pits from a bag of cherry’s i got at walmart! They just took off. However i live in Texas and i know i need to get these babys in the ground soon, luckily i do have a space to do so. I just don’t know what zone im in and if they will make it. Im so scared to put them out in nature as they are growing so beautifully here. Any suggestions?!

Kristina Hicks-Hamblin
Kristina Hicks-Hamblin(@kristinahickshamblin)
Gardening Writer
Reply to  Sacha High
3 years ago

Hi Sacha! Congratulations on your cherry trees – you seem to have a very green thumb! Ok, first thing’s first – if you let me know your zip code I can tell you what zone you’re in. Next – do you happen to remember what kind of cherries they were? Here’s why I ask – cherry trees (and many other fruit trees) require a certain number of cold hours during the winter in order for the trees to be able to set fruit. If you happen to know what kind of cherries they are (for example, Bing or Rainier), we… Read more »

Candy
Candy (@guest_10812)
3 years ago

I bought a sour cherry(romance series)tree/bush last spring in a pot and i wondered something that i have yet to find an answer to. What if i do not provide any chill hours to it while it is too young to produce and instead allow it extra growing time? During a move i made i simply had no place to keep it where it got the chill hours without killing it and it started to bud again after dropping it’s fall leaves. I’m in Canada so it is very cold and while potted it would require an unheated garage or… Read more »

Kristina Hicks-Hamblin
Kristina Hicks-Hamblin(@kristinahickshamblin)
Gardening Writer
Reply to  Candy
3 years ago

Hi Candy,
That’s a really interesting question! I’m really not sure what would happen if you “skipped” winter for a cherry tree. I think continuing with your plan sounds like the best solution at this point rather than putting it outside in the cold while it thinks it’s spring. We’d love to hear back from you and learn how your experiment goes – so please do let us know!
Best of luck to you in your new location – and to your sour cherry tree!

Claudia Tiefisher
Claudia Tiefisher (@guest_13190)
2 years ago

Recommending people drape their trees in bird netting is a terrible thing to do. First of all, the birds need food. Secondly, they can become tangled in the netting and die a horrible death.