Tree · Rosaceae
Cherry
Prunus avium
Give it full sun, deep soil, and good airflow, and a cherry tree rewards you with fruit for decades.
Full sun
Every 7–14 days
USDA 4–8
20–36 ft · 6–11 m
Overview
A cherry tree pays you twice in a season. First come the clouds of white bloom in early spring, the branches frosted over with petals, and by midsummer the same limbs hang heavy with fruit. It sits in the rose family and falls into two camps: the sweet cherry, Prunus avium, that you pull straight off the branch and eat, and the sour cherry, Prunus cerasus, that goes into the pie dish. Both want sun, room, and soil that drains.
Picture a full-size tree, not a patio pot. A standard sweet cherry can climb 20 to 36 feet (6 to 11 m), though grafting onto a dwarfing rootstock keeps the canopy low enough to net and pick by hand. Sour cherries hold a more compact, tighter frame and shrug off the cold, which lets them push further north.
Pollination is where new growers stumble. Many sweet cherries need a second, compatible tree beside them to set fruit, while self-fertile types crop on their own. Settle that before planting, because a lone Bing with no partner will cover itself in blossom and still hand you almost nothing.
Care
The short version: full sun, deep and well-drained soil, and even water across the season. Prune while the tree is dormant to keep an open, airy frame, pair a pollinizer with any sweet cherry that calls for one, and net the canopy before the birds reach the fruit.
Light
Cherries fruit best in full sun, ideally 6 or more hours a day striking the canopy. A little shade and they will still grow, but you lose fruit and let in the damp that disease feeds on.
Water
Water deeply and evenly, above all while a young tree is taking hold and again as the fruit swells and fills. Aim for around 1 inch (2.5 cm) a week, then taper off once the tree drops dormant. Uneven moisture and a heavy soaking near harvest are what split the taut skins.
Soil
Set the roots in deep, fertile, well-drained loam. Cherries cannot stand wet feet, so keep clear of low pockets and heavy clay that traps water. A pH held between 6.0 and 7.0 suits the roots.
Temperature
These are hardy trees, at ease across a wide span from roughly -22°F to 86°F (-30°C to 30°C). Sour cherries handle the cold better, while a late frost striking open white bloom is the real danger to a crop.
Humidity
Ordinary outdoor humidity in the 40% to 60% range suits them, so there is no figure to fret over. Airflow matters far more, since still, damp air pooling around the canopy is exactly where brown rot and canker take hold.
Feeding
Feed in early spring before the buds break, with a balanced fertilizer guided by a soil test. Go easy on the nitrogen, because a rush of soft, sappy growth pulls in disease and gives you leaves where you wanted fruit.
Pruning
Prune while the tree stands dormant in late winter to shape an open frame that lets light and air slip through the branches. Where bacterial canker is a problem, shift to pruning in dry summer weather instead, and always cut away dead, diseased, or crossing wood.
Size & spacing
A cherry is a true tree, rising 20 to 36 feet (6 to 11 m) tall and reaching 15 to 30 feet (4.5 to 9 m) across, though dwarfing rootstocks hold that back. Give a standard tree open room so air drifts through the canopy and disease has no still corner to settle in.
When to plant
Cherries keep time with the seasons. Set a bare-root or potted tree in early spring while it is still bare and dormant, watch it break into white bloom as the air warms, and pick sweet cherries through early to midsummer with the sour types close on their heels.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Plant: early spring while trees are still dormant
- Harvest: blooms in early spring; sweet cherries harvest in early to midsummer (June to July) and sour cherries shortly after, in the northern hemisphere
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 4–8
Temperature: down to -34°C
Troubleshooting
Most cherry trouble lands on the fruit, whether from disease, insects, or birds, while canker eats into the wood itself. Train your eye to catch the first signs and you can step in before a whole crop is lost. Match what you see below, then act while there is still time to help.
Scorched blossoms and fruit going soft under raised tan tufts
What you are seeing is brown rot, a fungus that first scorches the open flowers in spring, then settles into the ripening fruit. The flesh softens into a spreading tan patch, and across it sit small raised tufts of spores that feel powdery to the touch. Warm, wet weather drives it. Pull off every shriveled, mummified cherry and open the canopy by pruning so it dries quickly after a rain.
Sunken bark wounds weeping sticky gum down the wood
Bacterial canker presses sunken, dead pockets into the bark of branches and trunk, and a gummy amber sap weeps and hardens along the edges. The wood above the wound dies back. It strikes hardest through cool, wet springs, and no spray will cure it. Cut well below the canker into clean, sound wood, and save your pruning for dry summer weather when the bacteria are quiet.
Pale maggots boring through the flesh of ripening cherries
The cherry fruit fly slips its eggs into the swelling fruit, and the pale maggots tunnel through the flesh out of sight until you split a cherry open and find one. Hang sticky traps the moment the skins begin to take on color, so you can time control before harvest. Once a maggot is inside, that cherry is spoiled for good.
Colored cherries stripped from the branches by birds
Birds will pick a tree clean of ripe cherries before you get to them. Throw netting over the whole canopy as the fruit starts to color, because that is the moment they arrive. Scare devices buy you a little time, but a determined flock soon learns to ignore them.
Skins splitting open on cherries near picking time
Fruit cracking shows up as a clean split running across the taut skin of a ripe cherry. It happens when the fruit takes up water faster than the skin can stretch, usually after a hard rain or a late, careless soaking, and the open split lets rot move in. Hold soil moisture steady through the season, ease back as picking nears, and harvest quickly when a storm is on the way.
Toxicity
The ripe fruit is good to eat, but the rest of the tree is truly dangerous. The leaves, stems, bark, and pits all hold cyanogenic glycosides that release cyanide, and the wilted leaves left hanging from a snapped or pruned branch are the deadliest of all. Keep prunings and fallen leaves clear of pets and grazing animals, and never let anyone swallow the pits.
Toxic to
Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Safe for
People
Cats Toxic
The leaves, stems, and pits hold cyanide-releasing compounds, so a cat that chews on them faces a genuine risk. Look first for drooling and a queasy stomach, and in a bad case for widened pupils, panting, and breathing that grows labored before the cat slips toward shock.
Dogs Toxic
A dog that chews a fallen branch or cracks open a pit can swallow enough cyanide to get into trouble. It starts as a simple stomach upset, but a heavier dose brings hard panting, gums flushed bright red, and a sapped, weak body. A whole pit can also wedge in the gut and block it.
Horses Toxic
Horses sit among the most sensitive animals here, and the wilted leaves hanging from a snapped or freshly cut limb are the sharpest threat. Poisoning moves fast: gums turning bright red, gasping breath, an unsteady stagger, collapse, and at times sudden death with nothing to warn you.
Rabbits Toxic
Cherry leaves and bark are no treat for a rabbit. The cyanogenic glycosides can poison such a small grazer in short order, so keep every pruning and clipping far beyond its reach.
Livestock Toxic
Cattle, sheep, and goats run a high risk, and the wilted leaves left after a storm or a pruning are the usual cause of loss. A grazing animal can slide from red gums and strained breathing into collapse within minutes, so fence stock off from cherry trees and never throw trimmings into a pasture.
Birds Toxic
Birds swallow ripe cherries and drop the pit whole, but the leaves, twigs, and crushed pits give off cyanide and belong well away from caged or backyard birds.
People Ripe fruit safe
The ripe flesh is the familiar, safe fruit you already know. Don't chew or swallow the pits, and keep children clear of the leaves and twigs, since those parts carry the cyanide-releasing compounds.
Keep pets and livestock away from prunings, fallen leaves, and pits; wilting leaves from broken or trimmed branches are especially dangerous to grazing animals. Do not let children swallow pits.
Helpline numbers
United States
ASPCA Animal Poison Control: (888) 426-4435 (fee applies)
Poison Control: (800) 222-1222
Canada
Poison Centres: 1-844-764-7669
Varieties
Cherries divide cleanly into sweet types for eating off the branch and sour types for the kitchen. These are the names you will run into most, and whether each one fruits alone is the detail that counts.
Bing
A big, deep dark-red sweet cherry of the classic kind that will not fruit alone and wants a compatible pollinizer growing nearby.
Rainier
A sweet cherry with golden-yellow skin flushed with a red blush, and it too leans on cross-pollination to bear a crop.
Stella
A self-fertile sweet cherry that fruits on its own, the natural choice where there is room for only a single tree.
Montmorency
The standout sour cherry, self-fertile and tough against cold, and the one most bakers reach for at pie time.
Morello
A self-fertile sour cherry with dark-stained flesh that takes shade and cold in stride better than the sweet kinds do.
How to propagate
Cherries are not a plant you raise from a saved pit and expect the same fruit. For a known variety you begin with a grafted tree, and the rootstock beneath it decides how tall that tree will grow.
GraftingModerate
Nearly every named cherry is grafted or budded onto a chosen rootstock, since that is the only reliable way to hold a cultivar true to type. The rootstock also fixes the tree's eventual size, running from a tall Mazzard standard down to a dwarfing clonal root that keeps the branches within easy reach for picking.
SeedModerate
A stratified pit will sprout into a cherry, but the seedling will not match its parent, so this path suits raising rootstock or breeding stock rather than a named variety. Count on a wild or rootstock tree instead of another Bing or Montmorency.
Myths
Any part of a cherry is fine to eat.
Only the ripe flesh is safe. The leaves, stems, blossoms, and pits carry cyanogenic compounds that release cyanide, so those parts are toxic to people and animals alike. Eat the fruit and spit the pit aside.
A cherry tree must always have a second tree to bear fruit.
Many sweet cherries do need a partner for cross-pollination, but self-fertile types set fruit on their own. Sweet cultivars like Stella, and most sour cherries such as Montmorency, will crop as a lone tree.
Sour cherries are nothing but sweet cherries picked before they ripen.
They are a separate species, Prunus cerasus, not an early-picked version of the sweet kind. Sour cherries are naturally tart, smaller, hardier, and self-fertile, ripening fully into that sharp tang by design.