Cherry
Prunus avium
Blossom-laden tree — chives and nasturtium soften its pest load.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 13 ft 1 in
- In-row spacing
- 13 ft 1 in
- Between rows
- 16 ft 5 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
Calendar (from your frost dates)
- Plant out
- at the last spring frost
- First harvest
- 90 days after the last spring frost
- Harvest ends
- 60 days before the first fall frost
Growing
- Type
- Fruit · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Watering
- Moderate
- Soil
- Deep, fertile, well-drained
- Feeding
- A balanced feed in spring, with compost mulched over the roots.
- USDA zones
- 4a–9b
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- March
- Pruning
- Prune in midsummer and never in winter.
Through the year
- Mar–Apr Flowering
- Apr–Apr Bud Break
- Apr–Jun Fruit Set
- Jun–Jul Harvest
- Jul–Oct Growing
- Oct–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Mar Leaf Fall
Harvest
- When
- June–July in the UK (hence "cherry season" brevity); sweet cherries first, acid/sour (Morello) into August. Trees crop in 3–5 years; Morello tolerates a north wall.
- What to look for
- Deep, full color for the variety (dark red-black for most sweets, translucent bright red for Morello), glossy, plump, and slightly soft; sugar rises right to the end so taste-test — cherries do not ripen after picking. Stems stay green when fresh.
- How to harvest
- Snip or pull the whole stalk from the spur, keeping stems on the fruit (stemless cherries leak and spoil fast); avoid tearing the fruiting spur. Netting against birds is near-essential or the crop vanishes overnight.
- How often
- Every couple of days over a 1–2 week window per tree; pick promptly in wet spells — ripe cherries split after rain.
- Storing the crop
- Refrigerate immediately with stems on; sweet cherries keep up to a week, best within days. Freeze stoned; sour cherries excel bottled, in jam, and in pies. Not a keeper — eat or preserve fast.
Companions
Chives, Marigolds, Garlic, Comfrey
Pests & problems
- Aphids Cherry blackfly
- Birds Pigeons strip brassica leaves; other birds take fruit, buds, and seedlings. Netting fixed taut over hoops is the only reliable protection.
- Bacterial canker A bacterial canker of cherries and plums: sunken oozing patches on the bark that girdle branches, with shot-holed leaves and dying buds.
- Brown rot Fruit rots brown on the tree with buff rings of spores, then mummifies. Remove all affected and mummified fruit promptly, on and under the tree.
- Silver leaf A silvery sheen spreads over leaves of plums and cherries, followed by branch dieback. Prune stone fruit only in summer, when infection risk is lowest.
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Aphid midge Aphidoletes aphidimyzaHunts Aphids
A tiny midge whose orange maggots paralyze aphids and drink them dry, twenty or more each. Sold as a greenhouse biological control and resident outdoors wherever there are small nectar flowers and an unsprayed aphid colony to find.
- Assassin bug ReduviidaeHunts Aphids
A patient ambusher with a curved beak it drives into whatever it catches — caterpillars, beetles, bugs, and the occasional bee, so count it a generalist rather than a specialist. It will jab a careless finger too, so admire it and leave it be.
- Big-eyed bug Geocoris spp.Hunts Aphids
A stubby 3 mm bug with enormous wrap-around eyes, working the soil surface and the low foliage for aphids, mites, thrips and insect eggs. It is the main natural check on chinch bugs in a lawn and it is killed outright by insecticide.
- Damsel bug NabidaeHunts Aphids
A slender, mantis-armed bug that grabs aphids, small caterpillars, and thrips in low crops and meadowy edges. Leave a strip of unmown grasses and flowers for it to overwinter in.
- Dragonflies & damselflies OdonataHunts Aphids
Aerial hunters that take mosquitoes, midges and small flies on the wing all day, and whose larvae spend a year or more clearing the same insects from the water. A pond with planted margins and no fish is the way to have them.
- Garden birds PasseriformesHunts Aphids
Both things are true: birds strip your currants and a brood of blue tits takes several thousand caterpillars out of one fruit tree in a fortnight. Net what you must and welcome them everywhere else — a nest box near the apples is worth more than a spray.
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carneaHunts Aphids
Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.
- Hoverfly SyrphidaeHunts Aphids
Bee-mimicking flies whose legless larvae graze aphid colonies clean while the adults pollinate. A ribbon of shallow, nectar-rich flowers kept in bloom all season recruits wave after wave of them.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) CoccinellidaeHunts Aphids
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
- Minute pirate bug Orius spp.Hunts Aphids
A pinhead-sized true bug that is the best natural check on thrips, and happily spears aphids, mites, and insect eggs too. It needs pollen when prey is scarce, so keep something flowering nearby.
- Parasitic wasps Braconidae & TrichogrammaHunts Aphids
Tiny, stingless wasps that lay eggs in or on caterpillars, aphids, and moth eggs — the white cocoons riding a hornworm are their calling card, so leave that caterpillar be. Umbel flowers with shallow nectar keep the adults fuelled.
- Praying mantis MantidaeHunts Aphids
A sit-and-wait ambusher that snatches caterpillars, beetles, and anything else that wanders close — friend and foe alike, so count it a mixed blessing. Tall, structured plantings give it perches and egg-case anchors.
- Soldier beetle CantharidaeHunts Aphids
Soft-winged beetles seen mating on flower heads in high summer; adults and larvae both take aphids and soft grubs. Open composite flowers are their landing pads and hunting grounds.
- Spiders AraneaeHunts Aphids
Webs, ambushes, and night patrols make spiders the garden’s steadiest generalist predators, taking whatever flies or crawls past. Mulch, ground cover, and undisturbed corners keep the population dense.
Did you know?
Most cherries need a partner tree to pollinate — though 'Stella' began the trend for self-fertile ones.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com