Sweet cherries are appreciated for their excellent taste and early ripening. Its delicious fruits open the fruit season in May.
Features of flowering and fruiting cherries
Sweet cherry is one of the main fruit crops in Ukraine and the southern regions of Russia. In the south (in chernozem regions and in the Black Sea region) cherries grow in large trees, up to 25-35 meters high (in gardens with pruning up to 6-8 meters), and live up to 100 years. The trees bear fruit 4-6 years after planting and yield marketable yields of up to 30-40 years. In favorable climatic conditions, cherry trees bear fruit annually. Harvest from one tree reaches 40-50 kg of fruit.
In the south, cherries grow in large trees.
Cherry blooms in spring at the same time as the leaves bloom. Cherry flowers are pollinated by bees, therefore, for good fruit setting, warm sunny weather is necessary, favorable for the activity of pollinating insects. Frosts kill flowers and ovaries. Protective measures such as smoke in practice are ineffective, it is much more productive to cover flowering trees with agrofibre during freezing.
Most varieties of cherries are self-infertile, therefore, for cross-pollination, you need to plant nearby trees of 2-3 different varieties, blooming at the same time.
Cherry flowers are pollinated by bees.
Dates of flowering and ripening cherries by region - table
| Region | Flowering time | Fruit ripening |
| The countries of the Mediterranean and Central Asia | March - early April | Beginning - mid-May |
| Odessa, Crimea, Krasnodar Territory, Transcaucasia | April | The end of May - the beginning of June |
| Kiev, Chernozemye | End of April - beginning of May | June - early July |
| The middle strip of Russia, including the Moscow region | Second half of may | July - early August |
How to get a cherry crop in the suburbs
For cultivation in the Moscow Region, only the most winter-hardy varieties of cherries, specially bred for the middle lane, are suitable:
- Fatezh,
- Revna
- Chermashnaya
- Ovstuzhenka,
- Iput
- Bryansk pink.
They are planted in places protected from the north wind with a favorable warm microclimate. To make cherry trees easier to withstand frosts near Moscow, trunks and skeletal branches are wrapped with breathable agrofibre for the winter.
Harvest cherries can be grown even in the suburbs
In the middle lane, sweet cherry trees form a small height, not higher than 2-2.5 meters, therefore the yield from them is very modest, only 10-15 kg per tree. Cherry lives in the central regions of Russia for no longer than 15 years. The first fruits can be obtained for 4-6 years after planting.
Growing modern winter-hardy varieties of cherries allows you to get a small crop of your own delicious berries, even in the suburbs.
