Sweet Cherries

We grow about 1/2 acre of sweet cherry trees, planted in 1994. Most of our trees are on Mazzard rootstock, but we will use the new dwarfing rootstock, Gisela 5 for future plantings. To encourage production on young trees, we staked the trees, and tied branches down to slow growth and encourage fruit bud formation.

We grow 9 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 Vista, Vandalay, Tehranivee and some numbered selections. We also planted some selections from the breeding program in Summerland, B.C.

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. Someday we may have to build shelters over our trees to keep the birds out and 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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