The making of a Boutique Orchard: The Cherry Tree

When I was a kid, every summer my mom and I would visit my grandparents (mom’s parents)

on their farm in Iowa. Until grandpa’s untimely stroke, they had a farm just outside Westfield,

IA. I have wonderful memories of our summer sojourns! Grandma had the most amazing

garden, where I would pick and eat peas right out of the pod. They also had an orchard and at

the very end of it was a single cherry tree. To this day, I think their orchard and these memories

are why I too want a small orchard and most definitely a cherry tree… or two!

The Cherry Tree

Research and information by:

https://greenupside.com

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com

https://www.thisoldhouse.com

https://homeguides.sfgate.com

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com

General Overview

The time that a cherry tree blooms and bears fruit will depend on the climate.  Also, the

number of years you need to wait for fruit will depend on the type of tree you decide to plant.

Cherry trees bloom in the spring and bear cherries in late May, June, or early July.  A sweet

cherry tree will bear fruit five to nine years after planting, while a sour cherry tree will bear fruit

four to six years after planting.

Generally, there is a one month waiting period between when a cherry tree drops its white or

pink blossoms and the time it has fruit ready to pick and eat.  Cherry trees do not produce fruit

every year and young trees take several years to mature before producing fruit.

There are two basic types of cherry trees the sweet and the sour cherries (also called tart or pie

cherries).  Sweet cherry trees take five to nine years to grow before producing fruit. This means

I will need to be patient to say the least! According to the Farmer’s Almanac, sweet cherry trees

will produce 30 to 50 quarts of cherries per year (15 to 20 quarts for dwarf varieties). I’m pretty

sure the Cherry tree on my grandparents’ farm was a sweet cherry tree as I remember eating

cherries right off the tree.

Sour cherry trees mature a little faster than sweet cherry trees.  Sour cherry trees take only four

to six years to grow to the point where they can produce fruit. Sour cherry trees will produce 20

to 60 quarts of cherries per year (15 to 20 quarts for dwarf varieties). If you purchase cherry

trees that are one or two years old from a nursery, this will shorten your wait time for a cherry

harvest. I need to remember this when it comes time to purchase my Cherry tree!

Dwarf varieties produce cherries sooner (also good to know!). The dwarf trees are shorter and

easier to harvest. Some cherry trees are biennial and only produce every other year. Cherry

trees can survive for 20 years or more, ensuring that you get many years of good harvests if you

take care of them properly.

The weather is a factor in successful fruiting. Cherry trees require a certain number of chilling

hours in the winter to stimulate flower and fruit production. Sour cherries need 1,000 hours;

sweet cherries need 1,100 to 1,300 hours in temperatures under 45 degrees Fahrenheit to

break dormancy.

Sweet Cherry Variety

These Sweet Cherry varieties grow in Zone 7:

 Bing

 Stella

 Black Tartarian

 Evans Bali

 Mesabi

 Montemorency

 Rainer Sweet

Bing Cherries have always been my mother’s favorite and are also mine. So, when we

decided to have a mini orchard on our property, I knew the Bing Cherry was going to be one

of the fruit trees I’d grow. The Stella Cherry is a recommended pollinator for the Bing so

these will be the two cherries I focus on for the Boutique Farm orchard.

The Bing Cherry - Overview

Bing Cherries are a deeply red, heart-shaped fruit. The variety was first introduced in 1875 in

Salem, Oregon and has become one of the most economically important cherries. Bing cherry

trees thrive in temperate regions and bear four to seven years from planting. These cherry

trees grow in zones five to eight. The tree can get 35 feet (11 m.) tall; the dwarf variety only

grows 15 feet (4.5 m.) tall. The Bing cherry has a medium growth rate and produces a rounded

canopy with smooth, reddish bark marked with horizontal corky stripes on the trunk. The leaves

are dark green and up to six inches (15 cm.) long with serrated edges.

The Bing cherry needs another sweet cherry as a pollinating partner (such as Stella) and has a

chilling requirement of at least 700. It blooms in early spring with a mass of perfumed white

flowers. Fruits arrive around July. Bing cherry trees need a full day of sunlight for best flower

and fruit production. They also require well-draining soil that is a touch on the sandy side. After

planting, keep the young tree moist, as cherries are not drought tolerant. Remove competitive

weed pests and apply mulch around the root zone. An important part of Bing cherry care is

pruning. This will spur the growth of new fruiting wood.

Harvesting Bing Cherries

If you want to protect all those sweet, finger-licking cherries, a bird net is your best friend. They

are easy to use and prevent much of the pirating of your fruit. Harvesting Bing cherries may

take up to a week since the individual fruits sweeten and ripen at just slightly different times.

The ones to pick are deeply, uniformly red. Cherries will not ripen once off the tree, so if you

have any doubts, taste a couple to make sure they are sweet enough. Take the stem with the

fruit if you plan on using the fruit later. Store cherries at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 C.) for up to

10 days. Perforated plastic bags will keep them freshest.

If you have a bumper crop and can’t eat them in time, try freezing the fruit. Wash, de-stem and

place cherries in a single layer on a cookie sheet in the freezer. Once frozen, transfer them to

plastic bags and store in the freezer.

The Stella Cherry - Overview

Convenient and elegant, Stella cherry trees self-pollinate to yield juicy, delicious dark red fruit.

Stella cherry trees are stunning plants suited for small gardens, due to their small stature. These

vibrant trees have gorgeous white blossoms in spring that give way to dark red, juicy cherries

that resist splitting and cracking. Best of all, Stella cherry trees are self-fertile, so you only need

to plant one for an abundant crop. Hmmm…. Maybe that Cherry tree in my grandparent’s

orchard was a Stella as there was only one! I will have to ask mom about this…

Hardiness Zones

USDA Hardiness Zones indicate the regions where plants can grow, depending on minimum

winter temperatures. Stella cherry trees are best suited to Zones 5-9, across most of the

country, and prefer moderate summers.

Planting

The best time to plant a Stella cherry tree is spring, after the last frost, or fall. When planting

consider these steps:

 Choose a planting site with full sun or partial shade.

 Clear away any debris, weeds, or turfgrass.

 Dig a hole that’s the same depth of the root ball and twice the width, leaving a mound of

soil in the center.

 Tease the root ball gently with your hands or a small spade.

 Place the tree on the mound of soil and spread the roots. You want the tree’s crown to be

about one inch above the surrounding soil.

 Backfill the hole halfway, then add water to the top.

 Once the water drains away, finish backfilling the hole.

 Apply a two-three inch layer of mulch over the root zone of your Stella cherry tree, being

careful not to let it touch the trunk.

Growing Conditions

Stella cherry trees are low maintenance with few pruning requirements and are adaptable to

many different soil types.

Location

Cherry trees require a well-drained location that receives full sun daily. The trees do not grow

well in heavy soil; a light, fertile soil that is at least three feet deep is preferable. Trees that do

not receive sufficient sunlight do not produce well.

Sun and Shade

Stella cherry trees thrive in full sun with at least six hours of direct, unfiltered sunlight per day.

They can also grow in partial shade, but they will yield less fruit.

Soil

Stella cherry trees are widely adaptable to a broad range of soil types, but they prefer moist,

well-drained soil with a pH between six-seven

Watering

When your Stella cherry tree is young and still establishing, water it deeply with a hose for 30

minutes once a week. As it matures, water it every 10 days to two weeks. You’ll know you need

to water when the top two inches of soil feel dry, which you can test by inserting your finger

into it. When it’s dry, water the soil to a depth of 8-12 inches.

Fertilizing

Do not fertilize your tree the first year after planting. After that, feed it with 1/10 pound of

nitrogen each year for every year the tree has been alive, with a maximum of one pound per

year. The best time to fertilize is in spring in one treatment or spread it into two treatments

over spring and summer.

Pruning

Stella cherry trees do not require pruning to keep fruiting—however, you should cut away any

dead, damaged, or diseased branches as soon as you see them. If you want to prune for

aesthetic purposes, do it in winter when the tree is dormant.

Cherries produce fruit on spurs. Pruning mainly consists of shaping the tree and removing

broken or crossing branches in late winter. Heavy pruning can encourage excessive foliage

growth and reduce fruit production. When the spurs stop producing, remove the old spurs so

new branches will develop.

The primary reason for trimming cherry trees is to ensure the most optimal access to sunlight.

Cherry tree pruning allows for aeration, allowing light channels to penetrate the tree, allowing a

better fruit set, ease of harvest, and the ability to battle or thwart disease.

The rule of thumb when pruning fruit trees is to do so when the tree is dormant during the

winter. However, cutting back sweet cherries is an exception to this rule. Sweet cherries are

more susceptible to fungal and bacterial diseases, especially on recently cut limbs, so it is best

to prune them in the late summer. Keep in mind that summer pruning reduces the tree’s

energy for fruit production as well as its growth, so this should be minimal using only thinning

cuts. Thinning cuts are those which remove an entire shoot, branch, or limb up to the point of

its origin and do an excellent job of opening up the canopy.

Dormant pruning is a more aggressive pruning. When a large portion of the tree is removed

during the dormant season, the energy reserves of the tree remain unchanged. The timing of

dormant season pruning is critical and should begin as late in the winter as feasible to avoid

injuring the tree. Sour and weeping fruit trees may be pruned at this time once the risk of

winter frost has passed. Early spring is also prime time for pruning young cherry trees, shaping,

and training the young tree before it blossoms. Pruning should begin as buds emerge but wait

until all chance of extreme cold temperatures have passed to avoid possible cold injury, as

younger trees are more susceptible to this. Mature cherries can be pruned in early spring too,

or after they bear fruit.

The tools needed to trim a cherry tree back include: a hand pruner, long handled lopping

shears, and a pruning saw. Bypass pruners are better than anvil; they can get a closer pruning

job done than anvil pruners. The number one task in cherry tree pruning care, actually prior to

pruning any bearing tree, is to sterilize your pruning tools. This is to prevent the potential

spread of disease from other plants to the cherry. You can wipe the blades down with rubbing

alcohol and a rag or mix a solution of one part bleach to nine parts water and then rinse with

clean water and dry.

Young cherry trees should be pruned into an open vase-like shape to allow for light and air

penetration which increases the number of blooms, hence an abundant fruit set.

First, cut the suckers off the trunk of the tree and any shoots from limbs that are pointing

towards the trunk of the tree as well as any weak branches. All of these are rather pointless

shoots that strive to take nutrients from the areas of the tree you want them to go. Cutting

them also serves to increase air circulation. Cut the sucker right outside the branch collar, the

raised area where the stem meets the trunk.

Also, cut any obviously dead, diseased, or broken branches. Head the tree in fall or winter, an

exception to the above rule. A heading cut is the removal of part of a shoot, branch, or limb, up

to one-third to one-half its length. If you head in the spring, you will be lopping off developed

buds, potential fruit. Heading means cutting off the top of the leader, the central trunk to

encourage growth of the lateral branches.

Once the tree is three years old, it’s time to promote outward growth by pruning out new

vertical limbs. At this point you will need loppers or pruning saws, not shears. Again, clean the

tools prior to use. Also, prune out any dead or diseased limbs and dead fruit. Cut back any

suckers at the base of the tree. Remove any crossed branches. Cherries are prone to disease, so

be sure to clean up all the discarded remnants. Also, cover all cuts with a tree sealant to fend

off disease. The goal when pruning is to create a tree that is well balanced, open and

manageable, as well as aesthetically pleasing. There is no real science for pruning fruit trees.

Some of it is trial and error. Look at the tree carefully and try to envision it as it will look when

it’s leafed out in the summer and eliminate any shoots that seem too closely spaced.

Harvesting

Stella cherry trees are self-fertile, so you only need to plant one tree to reap an abundance of

cherries. Some nurseries sell Stella cherry trees that fruit as early as the first year, while others

may take up to seven years to fruit. The cherries will be ready for harvest between June and

July.

So, there you have it, as I continue my research on the various aspects of our future farm, and

the orchard, what I’m realizing is there is a lot A LOT about farming or perhaps advanced

gardening that I don’t know. This realization is both exciting and really intimidating! However,

I’ve never been one to shy away from a challenge and look forward to the learning experience

and all the pitfalls and joys that will come with it!