Growing Cherries Naturally

I wanted to make this thread to help me keep track of and document growing my cherry trees, with hopefully minimal work and maximum harvests!

They won't be irrigated, fertilized, or sprayed with anything, not even organic fertilizers or sprays, just naturally healthy soil, rain and sunshine!

They will be minimally pruned, if pruned at all. With minimal care, they can be truly enjoyed to the fullest! Bring on the yummy harvests!

Hopefully it can be helpful to others also!

If you'd like to stay up to date with the latest videos of what I'm growing and see monthly food forest tours, you can subscribe to my Youtube channel HERE by clicking the red subscribe button! I'd love to have you join me for this journey!

This is a cherry tree that has been growing pretty well in our warm climate.

It is a little taller than me, and I hope to get the first harvest of cherries next year!

This cherry tree is about 3 years old.

Cherries are rare in our area due to the heat and humidity, but this cherry is a vigorous grower and has been growing really well here so far!

I thought it was going to produce some fruit this year, but it didn't end up producing any this year. I hope to get the first harvest of cherries next year though!

This other cherry tree is the same age as the one above.

It's been a little more susceptible to some slight disease issues here in the past, but it has battled through them well and those few cases have decreased more and more as it has gotten older and stronger.

It has been putting on a lot of new growth this year and growing well!

Both cherry trees flowered and started to produce a little fruit in 2020, but the fruit dropped while it was still small, which is common the first year they fruit. The trees were the most healthy this past year with the bigger mounds around them, despite the heavy rains we had during the summer, and they kept healthy green leaves until Fall.

These were the new fruit buds forming in October.

Hi, I like your trees and hope they do well. I also appreciate your method of care and production for your trees.  I just wanted to give you something to mull over.  I have a friend who grows extra sweet and vibrant cherries. She puts organics around the roots. The only spray she has used is Food Grade Hydrogen Peroxide. She has found that the breakdown of hydrogen and oxygen inside the trees, and her other plants, have lead to amazing results. The trees resist diseases better, seem to have increased fruit output, and attract beneficial insects and repel unwanted insects. She is not allowed to sell her cherry s because the FDA has closed her down for not using an approved poison. Food grade h2o2 is not poisonous.  I don't think many people know the benefits of it. If anyone buys a 50 gallon drum of it, it is best to tell them it is for cleaning machinery organically. At least that way you can still sell your produce.

Anyway I hope you have luck with your trees this year.

Thanks Arthur!

I bet there's a lot of cherry growing in your area. Wish we had that here!

I've been really impressed by how much the disease and pest resistance has increased in these cherry trees naturally by just giving them well drained soil and having diverse plants growing all around them.

The well draining and fertile soil seems to have helped the most with disease issues, while the plant diversity has seemed to help the most with pest issues, mainly by attracting large numbers of beneficial and predatory insects to the food forest.

Hoping to taste my first home grown cherries in just a few months!

Hi Steve,  Great YouTube channel. Wish I could get things to grow like you. You have been very blessed.

The cherry buds are about to open!

The trees look like they will have a lot of flower buds. Hopefully I'll get to taste the first cherries from these trees this year!

The cherry flowers started to open a little about a week ago!

This will be the second year my two older cherries have bloomed. The first year they had just a few flowers, and the fruit fell off since the tree was still pretty young.

I hope to get my first cherry harvest this year!

More cherry blossoms opening about a week ago!

There are a lot more flowers this year, and the trees look super healthy!

Hi Steve, I’m interested to see that you don’t plan to prune your cherries. How big do you expect the unpruned trees to grow?

Here they grow to about 40 ft, making harvest quite challenging!

Hi Kevin, I'm growing them on their own roots, so they'll probably reach their full height. I prefer to grow my trees to their largest and most healthy size possible.

I have a 15 ft long fruit picker, so with that I can reach up about 20 ft. I plan to leave anything higher than that for the birds, or other animals coming to eat the leftovers. The animal manure from those eating the fruit will naturally fertilize and help increase the health of the tree!

The cherry blossoms are so amazingly beautiful!

The two cherry trees were almost in full bloom a little over a week ago, and they still both have a few blossoms open. They seem to have a really long bloom period, and there were a lot of flowers this year.

I really like this trait in fruit trees, as it increases the period that their flowers are open to be pollinated by insects and also available to pollinate other cherry trees that may start blooming a little before or after them.