Growing cherries in your home orchard can be rewarding, yet I find many people don’t try them.
Sweet or Tart? Choosing Cherries to Grow in Your Garden
When I talk with most people they want to grow sweet cherries, yet there are some compelling reasons to grow tarts one too.
In this post I’ll talk about reasons to grow both sweet and tart cherries and talk varieties.
Let’s start with those luscious sweet cherries.
3 Reasons to Choose Sweet Cherries for Your Garden
Who can resist the sweet juiciness of a ripe cherry? I’ll bet if you are reading this post, you look forward to those yummy little gems of flavor.
The first reason so grow sweet cherries in your garden may be obvious, but it is worth saying, because you ❤️ LOVE sweet cherries.
I do!
I often ask people what they like to eat, because growing what you like to eat is a great way to choose what to grow. If you do love them and I confess I do, then if you are putting some fruit trees into your home orchard, sweet cherries are one crop to consider.
Cherries can be pricey so if you want to eat allot of them, growing your own will save you money.
A new bare root cherry tree may cost you $60 or $65 dollars, but if you consider a bag of fresh cherries tends to cost $7 or more, you can see how fast you’ll get your money’s worth and how much money you can save.
Cherries are one of the “Dirty Dozen”, the group of foods that are grown with the most chemicals in the US according to The Environmental Working Group.
One great way to avoid health issues is by eating and growing organically. Therefore, growing your own cherries can save you money in the long run by helping to keep you out of the doctor’s office.
What about tart cherries?
3 Reasons to Grow Tart Cherries in Your Garden
Are you a fan of cherry pie? How about cherry jam, tarts, ice cream and dried cherries for salads or cookies?
Tart cherries are the stars when it comes to extending your cherry harvest. These are they type that are used to make pie filling and jams.
Your investment in your tree, keeps you from having to buy cherry products when fresh cherries are hard to find.
By canning your own cherry pie filling and jams to use the rest of the year, you extend your harvest and save even more money.
Dried cherries are wonderful in cookies and salads.
They pair well with walnuts and goat cheese in salads. Dried tart cherries make great additions to cookies. Think cherry chocolate chip – yummy.
They are super simple to dry with a dehydrator – which is a great investment to preserve all kinds of harvest from your garden,
You can make your own trail or snack mix by adding them to nuts and seeds and even chocolate chips.
When growing cherries, most varieties need a pollinator, so if you grow a sweet and a tart cherry that are good pollinators, then you get the best of both worlds.
Sweet Cherry Varieties
The two most famous varieties are Bing and Rainier.
When I was a kid, the neighbors down the street had a Bing cherry tree and my friend and I got to climb it and pick as many as we wanted.
More than once I went home with a tummy ache from eating too many, yet it didn’t stop my love of them.
Bing was introduced in 1875 and Rainer is a good choice for dry climates. If you are in the wetter climate, consider White Gold instead which resists cracking is wetter weather.
For red consider Stella which requires only 400 hours below 45F to successfully produce fruit.
Lapins has large dark red fruit and is widely adapted across the US. It needs only 500 chill hours.
For a black variety, if you are up north, consider the heirloom Black Tartarian. It was introduced in England in 1794 and requires 700 plus chill hours, making it a good choice for those in colder climates.
Tart Cherry Varieties
Montmorency is the most well-known pie cherry. 80% of pie cherries grown in the US and Canada are Montmorency. It does need more the 500 chill hours.
English Morello cherries are another well-known variety that needs 400 to 500 chilling hours. They have deep red flesh and wine red juice.
How about a Sweet Tart Cherry?
A sweet-tart cross is Carmine Jewel give you the best of both worlds.
Kansas Sweet is believed to be another sweet-tart cross. Sweeter than most tart cherries, but with a nice twang. This only needs 300 plus chill hours. A good choice for more southern growers.
Cherry Tree Pollination
Some varieties do need a pollinator and some don’t, this is why there is often confusion.
Traditionally, cherry varieties have been self-pollinating, yet growing them in proximity to another variety, that blooms at the same time would yield more fruit.
This is why you will see trees listed as ‘Early, “Mid” and “Late” season. Start with a variety you know you want to grow (see my last post for ideas). Then look for a variety that blooms at the same time, be it, early, mid or late.
Variety listings from a good company will list the bloom time and also tell you if they are self-pollinating or not. One of my favorite places to buy bare roots trees is Raintree Nursery. For each variety they have a list of recommended pollinators, making is easier for you to choose.
Chill Hours & Hardiness for Fruit Trees
When choosing your cherry tree varieties, you’ll need to consider both the chill hours of the variety and your growing zone.
Chill hours are not the same as your hardiness zone. Cherries are generally hardy in growing zones 4 though 9. Do look at the variety descriptions to be sure you are in the hardiness zone and have the chill hours for the variety you are considering growing.
Cherries are generally considered a cooler climate crop, vs peaches that are a warmer season crop, and citrus which is warmer still.
That said, there are cherry varieties that need less what is called “chill hours”.
In horticulture, chill hours refer to the total number of hours between 32 and 45°F that an area receives on average each winter. These are notes as “CU” (chill units). Chill hours are essential for certain plants to break dormancy and set fruit come spring.
Chill hours don’t need to be consecutive as they are noted as the cumulative total hours in that temperature range occurring between November and March. Hours below 32°F don’t count. And for every day that reaches over 60°F, one half-hour of chilling hours is subtracted from the total.
Cherry Tree Sizes
Choosing the size of your cherry tree is an important factor when deciding what to buy.
At this time there are four general size categories of cherry trees, with some sub-sizes depending on who you buy from.
The four main sizes are Mini-dwarf, Dwarf, Semi-dwarf and Standard.
Mini-dwarf are 6 – 8’. These are great for growing in containers, which makes them highly portable if you are planning on moving or have a small space.
Dwarf are 8-16’ and Semi-Dwarf are 12 – 22’. These two are what I tend to see most home growers buy that have a fenced in yard to keep out the deer. Because they are not that tall, deer can teach the entire tree.
Standard trees are 15 – 30’. The advantage of larger trees is that part of the tree is above deer browse level. You also, get more fruit, so if you have the space, they can be a great choice.
You can see there is overlap in size, this is why some companies will further break down the four categories.
Tree size is determined by its root stock.
Each variety can be grafted onto different rootstocks.
When buying bare root online, you can choose what size you want for most varieties. When buying from a local nursery, you have more limitations.
Which brings us to …
Potted or bare root cherry trees?
There are pros and cons to getting trees both ways.
Potted Cherry Trees
Pros:
- You can find them locally, so you don’t have to wait for a tree to arrive.
Cons:
- They are significantly more expensive than a bare root tree. For example, a 6’ tree in a container locally tends to cost an average of 1/3 or more than a bare root tree.
- You have less variety choices.
- You have less choices in tree size.
- You can choose what nursery to buy from.
- They acclimate slower in your garden. This is because they are used to being in their little potted environment, and hesitate to go outside their comfort zone.
Bare Root Cherry Trees
Pros:
- They are less expensive.
- You have lots more variety choices.
- You have more choices for tree size.
- You choose what nursery to buy from.
- They acclimate faster to your garden because they need that wonderful soil you have made for them to they thrive. They have been taken out of their soil and their roots pruned to ship them to you, so they are super happy to get growing when put in the ground!
Cons:
- You need to plant them when you get them.
In the next post, I’ll talk about the best way to plant your cherry trees, plus pest control for your cherries.