Growing cherries in your garden

Sweet cherry
(Prunus avium)
Sour cherry
(Prunus cerasus)

Cherries belong to the same family of trees as peaches, plums and apricots. There long lasting blossom in the spring is a welcome sight. They crop from early summer to late autumn depending on the variety. All types of cherries are long lived and once established they will need only simple cultivation and pruning routines.
Traditionally fruiting cherries are divided into two types, the sour, which need cooking and the sweet which can be eaten raw. A third type called Duke, is a cross between the these two, these can be used for desert and cooking, but the fruit is inferior to the best of the other two varieties.
Thanks to commercial breeders about ten years ago using a new root stock called Gisela 5, the size of new cherry trees have been drastically reduced. This makes them more suitable for the smaller garden or plot, they even be grown as a bush or fan shape plant. As well as achieving smaller trees the amount of yield is increased per plant using this new Gisela 5 root stock.
Many plants are not self fertile, so more than one tree will be required for pollination.

Site and soil
A warm sheltered site is idea, open to the sun. Because sweet cherries ripen early they need lots of sunshine. Avoid low lying frost pockets, as frosts at flowering time can be disastrous.
Cherries will grow in a variety of soil types, but the main requirement is good drainage. Very heavy soils can cause poor growth and smaller crops.

Planting
If you have a small garden make sure you purchase a cultivar which has been grafted on to a Gisela 5 root stock, unfortunately these will be more expensive as you pay a royalty fee.
The ideal time for planting out would be late autumn, but you can plant out any time between autumn and early spring. Because cherries have a deep rooting system deep cultivation of the soil to at least 90cms is advisable. Following planting water the soil well, after apply a mulch of well rotted manure, keeping this mulch slightly away from the stem. In dry conditions regular watering of the young tree will be required

Prunning
To maintain good future yields the cherries will need punning, a popular method would be the conical shape. This conical shape allows light to reach the trunk, which is essential for the initiation of new branch production. Research shows that to maintain a productive tree, well balance tree, the branches which arise from the main trunk should never reach more 50 percent of the main trunks diameter. When they do so they should be removed in August after the after the fruit has been picked. New branches can be induced by lightly scoring the trunk above a bud node with a pruning saw. Substantial fruiting on the replacement branch should take place about three years later, carrying on for another three to four years.
Never prune in winter as this increases the risk of diseases such as canker and silver leaf.