Cherry trees are one of the most beautiful and rewarding fruit trees to grow, with clouds of spring blossom followed by fruit that never tastes better than straight off your own tree. Cherries do ask for the right start, though, because the type you choose decides how much winter cold it needs, whether it needs a pollination partner, and even how you prune it. This guide covers the whole picture so your cherry grows healthy and productive, from choosing between sweet and sour through feeding, pruning, and protecting the crop from the birds that love it as much as you do.
Sweet or sour: choose your type first
The first decision shapes everything else, because cherries come in two distinct types. Sweet cherries, the large dark or blush fruit you eat fresh, grow into bigger trees, need a long cold winter, and, crucially, most of them need a second variety to pollinate them. Sour or tart cherries, the smaller bright-red fruit prized for pies and preserves, stay more compact, tolerate a slightly wider range, and are self-fertile, so a single tree will fruit on its own. If you have room for only one tree and want a reliable crop without a pollination partner, a sour cherry is the simpler choice, while a sweet cherry rewards you with fresh eating if you can meet its pollination needs.
Chill hours and climate
Cherries need a genuine cold winter to fruit, generally more chill than many other fruit trees, so they suit temperate zones far better than mild, warm-winter climates. Sweet cherries in particular need a long dormancy, and without enough chill a tree flowers poorly and sets little fruit. Check a variety's chill requirement against your zone before buying, and in warm regions look specifically for lower-chill selections, though the options are more limited than they are for peaches or apples.
Pollination
Pollination is where sweet and sour cherries differ most. Most sweet cherries are not self-fertile and need a second, compatible sweet cherry blooming at the same time, and to complicate matters some sweet varieties will not pollinate each other, so it pays to check compatibility or choose one of the self-fertile sweet varieties bred to fruit alone. Sour cherries, by contrast, are self-fertile and need no partner. If your sweet cherry blossoms heavily every spring but sets no fruit, a missing or incompatible pollination partner is almost always the reason.
Planting
Cherries are the fussiest of the orchard trees about drainage, so site selection matters more here than anywhere else in this guide. Their roots run relatively shallow and they will not tolerate wet feet, so heavy or slow-draining ground is worth amending, or the tree is worth planting on a raised mound so water moves away from the crown. Plant a bare-root cherry in late winter or early spring while dormant, set the graft union a couple of inches above the soil line, and water it in well. Avoid replanting a cherry where a cherry or plum recently stood, since stone fruit does poorly on its own old ground.
Light
Cherries need at least six to eight hours of direct sun, and with cherries the airflow that comes with an open, sunny position is nearly as valuable as the light itself. Brown rot, the disease that turns ripening cherries to mush, takes hold in fruit that stays damp, so a canopy that dries quickly after rain loses far less fruit than a crowded one in a sheltered corner. Site the tree in the open, and prune to keep the middle from closing in.
Watering
Cherries want deep, consistent watering, especially while establishing and through fruit development, but they must never sit waterlogged. The most important watering caution is specific to cherries: heavy rain or erratic watering as sweet cherries approach ripeness causes the fruit to split, much as it does in figs, because the fruit takes up water faster than the skin can stretch. Even, steady moisture through ripening, and harvesting promptly, reduce that cracking.
Feeding
Cherries are the lightest feeders of the orchard trees in this hub, and an established cherry in decent soil often needs very little. That restraint is not just economy: the soft, vigorous shoots that a heavy nitrogen feed produces are exactly the tissue that bacterial canker and silver leaf colonize, and those are the two diseases most likely to take a cherry tree from you. Overfed cherries also put their energy into wood rather than fruit buds.
So feed early and lightly, as growth begins in spring, and taper well before harvest rather than pushing the tree through summer. Calcium is the nutrient worth ensuring, since firmer-skinned fruit resists both the cracking that rain causes and the brown rot that follows it. A young or potted cherry of roughly three gallons or under is covered by the Potted & Container Fruit Tree Fertilizer Kit, while a large container or a young to mid-size in-ground tree takes the Backyard & In-Ground Fruit Tree Fertilizer Kit, both of which pair the controlled-release feed with the micronutrient and calcium support cherries draw on. If you prefer a measured liquid during active growth, the 9-3-6 fertilizer works, with rates in our 9-3-6 dosing guide.
Pruning
Cherries carry one pruning rule that surprises people: prune in dry weather, usually summer after harvest, rather than in wet winter dormancy. Stone fruits like cherries are vulnerable to silver leaf and bacterial canker, both of which spread through pruning wounds in damp conditions, so pruning when it is warm and dry lets the cuts heal cleanly. Beyond timing, keep the shape open so light and air reach the interior, remove dead, damaged, and crossing branches, and avoid heavy cutting, which stresses the tree and invites disease.
Pests, diseases, and birds
Cherries face a familiar stone-fruit lineup plus one practical rival. Brown rot is the major disease, rotting blossoms and fruit especially in wet weather, and it is managed by removing infected fruit and mummies, keeping the canopy open, and cleaning up fallen debris. Bacterial canker, silver leaf, cherry fruit fly, and aphids also appear. The rival is birds, which will strip a ripe cherry tree faster than you can pick it, so netting the tree as the fruit colors is the single most effective thing most growers do to actually get a harvest.
Seasonal care
Cherry care runs with the seasons. In spring, feed as growth starts, watch for aphids and the first signs of brown rot, and enjoy the bloom. In summer, keep moisture even through ripening, net against birds, prune after harvest in dry weather, and clean up any rotted fruit. In fall, ease off watering and rake up fallen leaves and mummified fruit to reduce next year's disease. In winter, let the tree take its cold dormancy and resist the urge to prune, since winter cuts on a cherry are how canker and silver leaf get in, so leave the shaping until the dry weather returns.
Common problems
Most cherry trouble is covered above. A sweet cherry that will not fruit almost always lacks a compatible pollination partner, and our guide on why fruit trees don't produce ripe fruit and our not-fruiting solutions cover the causes and the products that help. Cherry tree leaves turning yellow send you to the roots first, because cherries are the least tolerant of wet feet in this group and yellowing on a cherry in heavy or slow-draining ground is a drainage verdict more often than a feeding one. Once drainage is ruled out, a nitrogen or micronutrient shortage is the likely cause, and Yellow Leaves Rescue, the micronutrient feed, or the broader yellow-leaves fixes correct a genuine deficiency. Splitting fruit points to uneven watering or rain at ripening, and rotting fruit points to brown rot.
Harvest
Cherries do not ripen further once picked, so they must be harvested fully ripe, when sweet cherries are richly colored, firm, and sweet to taste, and sour cherries are bright and easily pulled with the stem. Pick with the stems on to help the fruit keep, taste-test as they color, and get ahead of the birds, because a ripe cherry tree does not stay ripe and unpicked for long.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need two cherry trees? For most sweet cherries, yes, you need a second compatible variety to pollinate them, unless you choose a self-fertile sweet variety. Sour cherries are self-fertile and fruit on their own.
Why won't my cherry tree fruit? Most often a missing pollination partner on a sweet cherry, too little winter chill for the variety, a tree that is still young, or frost damage to the blossoms.
Can I grow a cherry tree in a container? Yes, on a dwarfing rootstock, and a pot actually helps with the drainage cherries insist on. Use a large container with free drainage, give it full sun, and let it take a genuine cold dormancy over winter.
How do I keep birds off my cherries? Net the tree as the fruit begins to color. Netting is the most reliable way to actually harvest a crop.
Related guides
Apple tree care guide
Peach tree care guide
Why your fruit tree isn't producing ripe fruit