Gadenin日本語Get the appThe shape of the year
A cherry demands attention in short, sharply defined bursts rather than steady work. There are perhaps six weeks in the year when what you do decides whether you get fruit, and the rest is observation. Knowing which weeks those are is most of the skill.
The compressed part runs from bud burst to the end of picking, typically ten to twelve weeks. Within it, blossom is at risk from frost for about two weeks, the net must go on the moment fruit shows color, and the picking window itself is only ten to fourteen days. Miss any of those by a few days and the year is lost.
The rest of the calendar is simpler than for most fruit trees, with one hard prohibition: no cutting through dormancy. That single rule keeps the winter half of the year almost work-free.
| Season | Main job | Decision to make |
|---|---|---|
| Late winter, buds swelling | Check ties and stakes, mulch, feed | Is frost protection ready to hand? |
| Bloom | Protect from frost, keep bees working | Cover on a clear still night, or not? |
| Petal fall to fruit set | Watch the natural drop, keep water even | Was the set good enough to thin? |
| Fruit coloring | Net the tree over its frame | Net goes on at first color, not at red |
| Ripening | Pick over the tree three or four times | Pick now, or risk rain splitting? |
| After harvest | Summer prune, remove mummies | How much height to take off? |
| Late summer to leaf fall | Water in drought, clear fallen fruit | Any silvering or canker to cut out next summer? |
| Dormancy | Nothing with a blade | Plan and plant new trees only |
Late winter into blossom
Before the buds move, walk the tree and deal with the mechanical things: check the stake is sound and the ties are not cutting in, clear grass and weeds from a 3 foot (1 m) circle round the trunk, and top up the mulch while keeping it off the bark. This is also when to apply a balanced feed, spread over the root area rather than at the trunk, and to check that the net frame is intact after winter.
Cherry blossom opens earlier than most tree fruit, which is precisely why frost is the biggest single cause of crop failure. From first pink to petal fall, watch the overnight forecast: clear, still nights below about 30F (minus 1C) will kill open flowers. On a dwarf tree the answer is simple, which is row cover or a light sheet thrown over the frame in the evening and taken off in the morning so bees can work.
Take nothing off with pruners during this whole period, and spray nothing while flowers are open.
Set, swell and the run-up to picking
After petal fall the tree sheds a proportion of the small fruit it has set. This is normal and losing a third is expected; it takes a few weeks to finish, so do not judge the crop until it has. Once the drop settles you can see what you actually have.
From then until picking, the priority is even soil moisture. A tree that goes dry and then gets soaked splits its fruit badly in the final fortnight, so water deeply in dry spells rather than letting it swing, and keep the mulch topped up. On a dwarf rootstock with shallow roots this matters more than on a large tree.
The net goes on as soon as fruit changes from green to straw or pink. Birds start sampling before fruit is edible to us, and a tree they have already found is a tree they keep returning to. Peg the perimeter down and check it every morning for the rest of the season.
- Water deeply, not often In a dry spell give an established dwarf tree 8 to 10 gallons (30-40 liters) once a week rather than a little daily. Even moisture through the last three weeks before picking is what prevents splitting.
- Thin dense clusters while fruit is small Where fruit is packed shoulder to shoulder on a spur, remove a few at pea size. Fruit that is not touching does not pass brown rot along the cluster.
- Net at first color Cover the frame as soon as green turns to straw. Waiting until the fruit looks ripe to you is several days too late.
- Taste before you commit Test a fruit from the shaded lower inside of the tree. If that one is sweet through to the pit, start picking; if rain is forecast within a day or two, start anyway.
After harvest is when the pruning happens
The weeks straight after picking are the main working period of the cherry year. The tree is in full growth, cuts seal fast, and there is still enough season left for wounds to close properly, so this is when the structural work gets done.
Take out dead, damaged and crossing wood, remove upright water shoots, open the center for light and air, and bring the height back to what the net frame covers. Keep the total to about a fifth of the canopy. While you are in the tree, strip every shriveled mummy off the spurs and bag it, because those are the source of next year's brown rot.
Then remove the net, check it for holes and store it dry. Clear all fallen fruit from the ground, which is what carries fruit fly numbers into the following season.
This is the moment to make next year's decisions while the evidence is in front of you: whether the tree is gaining height faster than the frame allows, whether the crop was limited by pollination or by frost, and which limb showed early signs of silvering.
Autumn, dormancy and the records that pay off
Keep watering through a dry late summer, since next year's flower buds are forming now and drought stress at this point reduces them. Once leaves fall, clear them from around the tree if canker or rot has been a problem, and otherwise leave the tree alone entirely.
Through dormancy the only jobs are planting new trees, adjusting ties, and repairing the net frame. Resist every impulse to tidy the tree with pruners on a mild winter day. That is how silver leaf and bacterial canker get in, and it is the commonest way gardeners lose a cherry they have grown for a decade.
Write the year down while it is fresh: first bloom, full bloom and petal fall dates for every cherry within reach; the night frost struck, if it did; the date the net went on; first and last picking; roughly what the tree yielded; and any bark or leaf symptom with the limb it was on. Two or three years of that turns cherry growing from guesswork into a calendar you can act on a fortnight ahead, which is exactly the margin the crop needs.