Sweet Cherries

We are on our second planting of sweet cherries, a 1 acre of block on the new dwarfing rootstocks, Gisela 5 and Gisela 7. To encourage production on young trees, we staked the trees, and tied branches down to slow growth and encourage fruit bud formation. We chose the dwarfing rootstock, so that trees are small enough to cover with netting to try to keep the birds out.

We grow 4 cultivars of sweet cherries, some of which are self-fruitful. We have some old favourite cultivars like Hedelfingen and Viva, but have expanded into newer cultivars develped at Vineland,Ontario like Vandalay, and Tehranivee.

We have chosen these cultivars for their good eating quality, and to provide ripe cherries over 3 weeks in June-July. Cross-pollination between cherry cultivars is sometimes challenging, even with bees in the orchard, so more cultivars provide more chances of good fruit set.

The main problems with growing cherries are: bird damage, rain splitting and fruit rots, and short tree life. We tried sugar sprays in 1998 to deter birds, but found that some trees dropped leaves from these sticky sprays. That's why we've built netting over our trees to keep the birds out. Our next challenge may be to keep the rain off the fruit.


For more information on sweet cherries:

See our Recipe File
Foodland Ontario Produce Facts - Cherries Coming soon
British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture and Food cherry page

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