I planted a Yoshino Flowering Cherry tree last January, so I can't complain when it doesn't produce fruit. Instead, it will produce beautiful, five-petal flowers in early spring - at least I hope so. I chose the The Yoshino Flowering Cherry Tree for its elegant, soft, white/pink aromatic flowers in spring. It's a wonderful tree to accent small or large areas in the lawn. Depending on variety, it can grow anywhere from 12 to 40 feet tall.

Cherry trees are among the earliest bloomers here in Contra Costa County. So, if you like cherry blossoms, then planting an ornamental cherry, such as the Yoshino, is a great option. However, as beautiful as my ornamental cherry will be, growing cherries from my own fruit tree sounds even more appealing to me. I mean, given the choice, I could polish off a whole bowl of sweet, delicious cherries in place of any other afternoon snack.

But, I found there is the challenge of growing a successfully productive sweet cherry tree, and the very the real challenges it has to overcome here in the Bay Area. They need a certain number of winter chilling hours (and its been hot until now), they are very sensitive to both over/under watering (can you say drought?!), and, often need a nearby pollinator tree (unless grafted to include one).

 

 

 

Without meeting the chilling hours required for each variety, the tree will not break its winterdormancy and fruit production will be affected. You could see anything from decreased fruit production to delayed bloom or foliation, or maybe the tree will continue to bloom for much longer than it should be, so chilling is a necessary requirement.

UC Davis has a site where you can look up the cumulative chilling hours in your county (some cities listed too), check it out here: Chill Calculators. As of this writing (May 26), there have been 878 hours of chill with temperatures below 45 degrees Fahrenheit, but above 32 in Concord. Apparently, chill hours are also affected by being too cold. To put this in perspective, popular Bing Cherry trees need somewhere between 700- 900 chill hours, so some of these, as well as other cherries, could be affected this year.

Well, that all spooks me a bit. But, hey, that is the fate of the home gardener...we will not always be successful. For now, I will grow my Yoshino Flowering Cherry, but I plan to try my luck with a fruiting cherry next year.

 For more information on sweet cherries, see:

 http://homeorchard.ucanr.edu/Fruits_&_Nuts/Cherries/

For more information on chill hours and tree selection, check out:

http://homeorchard.ucanr.edu/The_Big_Picture/Tree_Selection/