Grow your own cherries

Cherries have plenty going for them. Beautiful blossom, shiny fruit that appear dipped in polish and delicious to boot. There’s even the pleasure of ‘spit the pip’ games afterwards (best when you’re eating al fresco).
So why don’t more of us grow cherries in our gardens? In the past the answer came in three parts: birds, pollination and tree size. Sweet cherries were renowned for being unwieldy giants requiring acres of space to grow, with fruit that was stripped by birds in an instant and complicated pollination needs that meant growing several compatible trees instead of just one.
The good news is that all three dilemmas have been overcome thanks to the efforts of modern breeding, so if you crave this summer treat there really is nothing stopping you.

Cherries in the modern garden
Cherries can be split into sweet (dessert) cherries (Prunus avium) the type you eat raw from the fruit bowl and acid (sour) cherries (Prunus cerasus) with tart fruit perfect cooked and for jams.

Sweet cherries
It was the sweet cherries that were renowned for their vigour and inappropriateness for small gardens but new rootstocks have revolutionised garden growing. The most extreme is the semi-dwarfing rootstock Gisela 5, offering the gardener a perfectly manageable tree of no more than 2.5m (8ft) in height or small fan reaching 2m (6ft) in height and 3.6m (12ft) wide. The next step up is the Colt rootstock, good for larger fans or half-standard trees.

Acid cherries
Acid cherries are less vigorous than the sweet so they tend to be grafted onto Colt. You may see enormous cherry fans on old houses because they were one means of restricting the tree’s vigour before the advent of these restricting rootstocks.

Pollination
Pollination should no longer terrify the newcomer either. Most modern varieties are self-fertile so they’ll happily set fruit when growing solo, although one or two still need company (of a different variety) for successful pollination. If you’re choosing trees that are self-sterile (require a partner), it makes sense to use a professional fruit nursery who can advise you on pollination groups and help you avoid incompatible varieties. Many modern, self-fertile varieties also make excellent pollinators allowing you to pair the old and the new. If you’re intent on tracking down less common older varieties, then try Brogdale or Keepers Nursery.

Soil and Site
Cherries do best in a deep, fertile, well-drained soil. Dig in plenty of organic matter before planting then mulch yearly in spring, adding a sprinkling of general-purpose fertiliser as you go. The best way to establish new trees is as dormant bare-rooted plants over-winter. If you choose to buy container grown plants at other times of the year then you’ll need to keep a close eye on soil moisture while they get established.
Drainage is crucial – cherries won’t stand being waterlogged and you want to avoid boom and bust water levels at fruiting, or fruit may split.
Sweet cherries need a sheltered, sunny site and are easiest in the south of the country. However if you’ve a sheltered site, and pick a suitable variety (such as ‘Summer Sun’) then you should still have success. Sweet cherries tend to be early to flower, leaving them prone to frost damage, so avoid frost pockets at all costs. If you’re in a colder area, then fan train trees against a south or south-west facing wall.

Container cultivation, with semi-dwarfing rootstocks, is an alternative, which means you can move plants undercover when dubious weather strikes. Just makes sure the pot is deep enough for the tree not to resent it. Be generous with food and water. Cooking cherries such as ‘Morello’ are more hardy than sweet and will happily take a north-facing wall, although they don’t mind a bit of sunshine. This makes them a good choice for cooler northern climates and the near black fruits grow sweeter the longer you leave them on the tree.

Pruning
The first rule of cherry pruning is that it should never be done in winter. Unless you prune when the sap is rising (spring/summer) you’re putting your tree at greater risk of infection from bacterial canker and silver leaf disease.
Sweet cherries fruit on old established spurs and sometimes at the base of one- and two-year-old shoots like plums. Fans will need severe shortening of new shoots each year to keep them in shape and stimulate the formation of fruiting spurs. Shorten side-shoots by half in summer, then pinch back again to around three leaves in autumn.
Acid cherries fruit on the previous year’s wood. This means pruning fans once, in early summer, to thin side-shoots to be around 10cm (4in) apart plus removing any shoots growing into/away from the wall or those that are crossing/diseased. Then you’ll need to prune again later to remove the older, fruited wood.

Protecting your own
We aren’t the only living things to lust after cherries. Birds can strip a tree of its harvest overnight. My grandfather would shoot any feathered thing that so much as looked at his trees – a worrying prospect considering he only had one eye. A safer (friendlier/legal) option is to net your plants which will also stop finches damaging flower buds earlier in the season. But do it thoroughly, any holes and you’ll find you’ve caged several fat blackbirds in, not out. Finally when you pick your precious harvest (let them ripen fully on the tree), snip the stalks with secateurs and eat them that day. You’ll find it hard not to!

The best varieties to get you started

 ‘Stella’ The first self-fertile sweet cherry to be bred and still a reliable choice for mid-July harvests with dark-red, incredibly sweet fruits. A good pollinator of other dessert cherries.

 ‘Sweetheart’ Spread the harvest still further with this late ripening, self-fertile variety cropping over an extended period in August.

 ‘Summer Sun’ A new sweet variety that withstands cold and dubious summers better than other varieties. Self-fertile, cropping mid-July.

 ‘Cherokee’ (‘Lapins’) A self-fertile sweet cherry capable of withstanding less than perfect conditions and crops slightly later than ‘Stella’ with heavier yields. Fruit is less prone to split.

 ‘Merton Glory’ An older sweet variety. Pale-white sweet fruit with a faint red flush. Fantastic flavour, cropping in mid-July. Requires a pollinator.

 ‘Morello’ The classic acid cherry for cooking. Ripens August or September. Plants are self-fertile and are great fan-trained against a north-facing wall.