Sweet Cherry

Siting: Sweet cherry needs full sun and moisture-retentive, well-drained soil, since it will not tolerate wet or waterlogged ground; choose an open spot protected from high winds with room for a mature tree that can reach 15 to 30 feet or more.

Planting: Select a one-year-old whip with a good root system and set it out in early to mid-spring as soon as the soil can be worked; because trees are grafted onto rootstocks that determine mature size, keep the bud union one to two inches above ground level when planting.

Pollination: Most sweet cherry trees are not self-fruitful and need a compatible sweet cherry planted nearby to set fruit, so bees and other pollinators are essential in the garden; the tree also has a chilling requirement of roughly 700 to 800 hours near or below 45°F before buds break normally in spring.

Pruning and care: Formative pruning in the early years builds a strong framework, but because fruiting spurs stay productive for 10 to 12 years, a mature tree generally needs less annual pruning than other stone fruits; routine care also includes fertilizing, weed control, mulching and watering as needed.

Sweet cherry can be attacked by a wide range of diseases, including leaf spot, bacterial canker, brown rot, black knot, crown gall, leaf curl, leaf scorch, powdery mildew, root rot, scab, shot-hole fungus and rhizopus rot. Insect pests include aphids, fruit flies, sawflies, scale, peach tree borer and plum curculio, and birds and squirrels readily eat the ripening fruit.

Late spring frosts can damage the flower buds before fruit has a chance to set.

Picking: Cherries should be left on the tree until fully ripe, since the fruit does not continue to ripen once picked; harvesting should be done gently, by hand or from a ladder, to avoid damaging the long-lived fruiting spurs, and the harvest window on any one tree is short.

Weather: Heavy rainfall close to harvest can cause the ripe fruit to crack, so harvest timing should take the weather into account.

Handling: Before eating or preserving, rinse the fruit under cold running water rather than soaking it, and remove the stems; pits should be taken out before the fruit is processed in a blender or similar equipment, since cracking the pit releases toxic compounds.

Culinary: The ripe fruit is eaten raw or cooked and used in baking and preserving.

Wood and smoking: The reddish-brown wood is used for furniture, cabinet-making, paneling, parquet flooring and musical instruments, and its fragrant smoke is used for smoking meats.

Ornamental: Showy fragrant white spring flowers and colorful fall foliage make sweet cherry a popular ornamental and pollinator- and butterfly-friendly tree for streets, parks and gardens.

Medicinal (historical): Historically, decoctions of the fruit stalks were used as an astringent, diuretic and tonic to treat cystitis, bronchial complaints, anemia and looseness of the bowels, and an aromatic resin from the trunk was used as an inhalant for persistent coughing.

Sweet cherry is native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa, where it grows wild in the partial shade of forest edges and open woodlands. It was introduced to North America in the 1920s and to Australia in the late 1800s, and has since spread widely and naturalized outside cultivation in many regions. Its species name, avium, meaning "of birds," reflects the role birds have long played in feeding on and dispersing its fruit.