It’s hard to say no to bunches full of red plumpy cherries. The sweet taste of these fruits has everyone’s heart, so many people wish to grow this tree to have the joy of plucking fruits from their own tree.
But often cherry trees test the gardener’s patience by not showing fruits. So it’s obvious for cherry tree owners to get confused about when cherry trees produce fruits.
Here we’ll talk about the timing and other related things about cherry fruits and also give tips to increase cherry fruits.
When do cherry trees produce fruit?
Cherry trees depending on their variants produce fruits within 4 to 9 years of planting. It mostly starts showing fruits in July or early July. Factors like weather, harvesting, etc. control the fruit production in cherry trees. A mature cherry tree can give up to 50 quarts of fruits in a year.
Cherries complete summer. The sweet juicy tiny red cherries are everyone’s favorite as a sweet treat. Growing cherries in your own garden brings a different joy. But it takes some time too to enjoy the sweet and sour cherry fruits once you’ve planted the tree.
A cherry tree takes time to give fruits. There are different types of cherry trees and when it starts bearing fruits it is different in different variants. Let’s know when these cherry trees produce fruits:
Regular cherry tree:
Regular cherry trees or the cherries we eat most takes a longer time to get mature and produce fruits. It can take 5 to 9 years to produce cherries. If you grow one you are likely to enjoy its fruits after at least 6 years in early July.
Black cherry tree:
Black cherry is another variant of cherry tree. It’s found with bunches of alluring dark red fruits in the fall or early summer season. In August and Earlier in September black cherry trees produce fruits.
Black cherries take about 5 to 10 years maximum to make fruits.
Stella cherry tree:
Stella cherry tree is a sweet cherry tree. Generally, after 4 to 7 years of planting, you are likely to have fruits from this cherry tree. But with some developed genes some Stella cherry trees produce fruits within 1 or 2 years of planting.
You can harvest ripe heart-shaped juicy cherries from Stella cherry trees in June or July.
Bing cherry tree:
Bing cherry is a kind of sweet cherry. It’s a demandable variety of cherry that’s dark, plumpy, and very sweet in taste. It gives fruits in the mid-summer that’s around the middle of June.
Like other cherries Bing cherry needs time to produce fruits. This specific cherry tree takes 4 to 7 long years to produce fruits.
Wild black cherry tree:
Lush purple-black wild black cherries are often noticed in the woods, parks, or public gardens. Wild back cherry trees produce fruits in Summer around Mid-June to July.
Wild black cherry trees take a 5-year minimum to produce dark reddish purple cherries after planting.
Lapin cherry tree:
Lapin is a sweet cherry tree and grows fruits in the late summer mostly. It produces fruits from late June till early August.
Generally, the lapin cherry tree needs the same amount of time as other sweet cherries, that’s a minimum of 4 years to make fruits. However, factors may affect the timing of any cherry tree.
Things to know about cherry tree fruiting:
The cherry tree’s fruit production doesn’t happen in the same months for every type of cherry. So before you get disappointed and blame the nursery there are a few things to know about cherry tree fruiting.
The months of the year when cherry trees produce fruit:
Cherry trees generally produce fruits in June-July. It’s common for the regular cherry fruits to grow in the summer.
However, depending on variety, weather, and growing place the time may change. For example, a black cherry tree produces fruits in August and early September. Lapin cherry starts fruiting in late June. Wild cherry fruits are seen in July.
Some cherry trees start producing fruits in the early summer and last till fall or spring. Some variants start fruiting early but don’t last more than two months.
Frequency of fruit production each year:
Cherry trees produce fruits once a year that last for around 3 months. Though some species of cherry produce fruits at different times of the year, they too give fruits once a year.
The frequency of cherry trees’ fruit production isn’t high but almost all types of cherry fruits produce 12 to 15 gallons of cherry in one year.
What causes a cherry tree not to bear fruit?
Often it can happen that you choose the best staple or hand-pick seeds yet the cherry tree doesn’t produce fruits year after year. In this kind of situation, you may wonder what’s wrong with the tree or doubt if you’ve left any stone unturned.
Well, there are a few reasons behind why a cherry tree isn’t bearing fruits when it should. Let’s
focus on some common causes here:
The Cherry tree was not properly watered:
Water is a vital part of a tree’s nutrients and the cherry tree is not an exception.
A cherry tree needs regular and proper watering from day one. Especially if it’s growing in hot summer in most areas, you will have to pour gallons of water to keep the soil hydrated. It will also help the tree roots to absorb essential nutrients from the ground.
If a cherry tree isn’t being watered correctly it may not bear fruits in the future.
The Cherry tree wasn’t at the right temperature:
The temperature of the area where the tree is getting planted plays an important role in fruiting.
The cherry tree prefers a temperature that’s not more than 45 degrees, if it’s lower then even better. For better fruits, Chilling hours are important for the tree.
Usually, the perfect chilling hour for any cherry tree is 200 to 12oo hours, so if they don’t get it right, they won’t be able to bear fruits.
The tree had poor pollination:
Pollination means shifting or transferring the pollen of any tree so that it can reproduce the same species.
If a cherry tree is having flowers but not fruits, again and again, maybe the pollination is not happening right. Poor pollination can be caused because of distanced co-pollinizers, maturity, nutrients, etc.
Tips for encouraging fruiting on cherry trees:
We bet everyone who plants a cherry tree wishes for tons of sweet cherries from their trees. It’s the sweet treat we look for! However, if you don’t take proper care, you may end up having only the tree without any fruit for years.
So here are some tips for you that will encourage fruiting on cherry trees:
Take care of the soil:
You must take care of the soil that’s been used to plant the tree. It shouldn’t be heavy, too dry, or too sandy. A cherry tree grows well in the moist ground but over-watering the soil is never encouraged.
The soil you’ll plant the cherry tree on should be deep and moist but not muddy or mushy. It’s better if the soil is a bit acidic as it helps the tree to grow healthy.
Focus on fertilizing:
Fertilizing the cherry tree properly can bring you tons of cherries. So at first make sure they are getting full nutrients by absorbing. If there is grass around the tree, cut them off to ensure proper nutrition absorption.
Fertilize your cherry tree according to its need in different seasons. For example, before spring and in the last days of winter use fertilizer that has low nitrogen in the suggested ratio.
Concentrate of pollination:
Cherries are self-pollinating trees. But pollinating cherries with other species of types of cherries can get you more fruits that are too of a different and sweeter taste.
Cherries are effective pollinators. They can self-pollinate easily and successfully most of the time with nearby cherries. Cherries that have a high rate of producing fruits can be pollinated with the opposite type of cherry to give more cherries to the owners.
Do you need two cherry trees to produce fruit?
It’s not always important to have two cherry trees to produce fruits. Cherry trees are self-pollinating trees. It means they can transfer pollen from their plant’s flower to the same flower or to a different flower on the same cherry tree.
For example, Tart cherries can self-pollinate and produce fruits. But a few varieties of the cherry tree cannot self-pollinate. So they need another cherry tree.
Final Thoughts
In general cherry trees start giving fruits earlier in summer, mid-April and it can be continued till late July. But different varieties of the cherry tree have different timing for producing fruits. Besides, many factors affect the fruiting in a cherry tree such as climate, soil, temperature, etc.