steve:

I have all the varieties you listed except Van, plus about a dozen more. Unfortunately I haven't tasted enough of most to know if they rank with Bing. I have had a lot of Bing and Rainier. In my greenhouse Bing is better. But I had some very good Rainier when I lived near Fresno. They produced very well there. Since Bing and Rainier cross pollinate, they would make a good pair and would be my first choice in your area.

The Muti-grafted tree would also be a good choice. Those trees can do just as well as any. You will likely need to do some pruning to keep each limb about the same size. Van has a high rating in Dave Wilson taste tests in CA. Lapins I suspect might not be as good, but that is only a guess. If you didn't like any variety you could prune to minimize but not remove completely. More pollinators cann't hurt in cherry production.

I'd probably get all three trees. If you have room for two you can always make room for three, but that's just me.

The Fruitnut

My friend's father has a cherry orchard in eastern Washington and has some Van trees. They are the BEST sweet cherry, IMO. Much more flavorful than Bing or Rainier. It's not very widely grown for commercial use, I think because the fruit bruises a bit easier than other varieties or maybe something to do with the stems?? I can't remember. But for the home garden, the "problem" it has won't matter.

Steve,

Where are you getting the 4-in-1 cherry tree from?

Thank you fruitnut and others for responding to my post. The 4-in-1 cherries come from grower Dave Wilson. My mom has a Van cherry tree and they are not very tasty at all. That may be because she picks them too early (Labor Day weekend) to head off the birds. They are red on the outside but yellow on the inside, not black inside like Bing.

Fruitnut,

Thanks for your suggestions. I bought one Bing cherry tree and one Royal Rainier cherry tree, both on Mazzard rootstock. Our local nursery just got a nice selection of bare root trees with 1 inch thick trunks and branches over seven feet tall. I am wondering if planting them 10 feet apart is enough room. I plan to prune them every year. I understand that Mazzard is a vigorous rootstock.

IMHO
as I grow them, or grew them, the Van plays second fiddle to a Bing. Lapins is pretty much as good as Bing, but Lapins gets brown rot in the center of its nice tight bunches. that is difficult to control. A nice ripe Rainier is very good. IMHO Benton and Attika and Sweetheart are better tasting than Bing. I usually feel that Skeena, Sandra Rose and Regina are better.
It is sometimes difficult to say as you don't have one variety in peak condition when another is ripe and ready to eat.
All above IMHO and YMMV

steve: 10ft is enough if you don't have more room. But on Mazzard you can expect crowding before they bear much if any. Also, if you prune from an early age, that will further delay bearing. I would try to train some branches to horizontal or 30 degrees above to try to get them to bearing earlier. Perhaps geraldo will chime in on how to make cherry on mazzard bear sooner.

You better study up on training cherry.

I'm sure you understand Royal Rainier is not the same as Rainier. I have Royal Rainier on mazzard. Last, it's 5th leaf, it finnally set a handfull of fruit. But the coons stole everyone.

The Fruitnut

I do realize that Rainier and Royal Rainier are different. Royal Rainier is supposed to be a taste test winner in the Dave Wilson flavor tests. Has anyone tasted Royal Rainier?

Although I mainly picked the Royal Rainier because I liked the way the tree looked. I have a feeling that they will produce cherries within three years, because these trees are relatively mature already. That's just my guess based on my experience with other fruit trees.

I was told that my apple trees would not get any apples for years. Instead, they produced several apples the first year and have continued to produce apples every year since then - about 10-20 per tree.

I grew and discarded Royal Rainier. It just wasn't a really good cherry as it was grown by me on my place. That is not to say it wouldn't be great for you. Sometimes we have to be careful in going by what internet posters state. Just have to find out for yourself to really know and be sure.

I have read that Royal Rainier has a sulfur taste when grown in some parts of Washington state. Geraldo, where were you growing Royal Rainier?

Sulfur? I am growing in volcanic ash in Eastern WA. So that's where that taste is coming from.

Geraldo, read this article if you are interested in where I heard this about Royal Rainier, particularly paragraph 9:

http://www.goodfruit.com/issues.php?article=1763&issue=66

Sounds like this grower is also blaming the volcanic soil.

We don't have volcanic soil here in my part of central Calif., so I may have better luck with it.

that's interesting and I did read it back then. but if Washington growers want to pick it early and get it to market then I am sure Cali growers want to do the same. for me the cherry just was nothing special. I wouldn't say it developed a bad flavor, it just didn't stand out. It was not the early I was looking for and it didn't grow out that well. It's been years ago I and I can't remember what root.
I think what we should take from this is that you can't always go with what has worked for others, particularly those in other areas. You can consider it, but if you really want to know you have to plant one yourself.

Information for whoever might care to read it. I live in Dodge City,Ks. I am now growing my 2nd Stella sweet cherry. The first one froze back in the early 90's when we had a temp drop of over 80 degrees in one day in Oct. The first tree easily produced over 100 lbs of cherries if the frost didn't catch it. This is a semi-dwarf tree.We always netted it. The fruit is great tasting and has a great crunchy quality. The new tree produced some fruit the 3rd year. It is self pollinating. I'm thinking its about 10 years old now and we have had 1 bumper crop. Really 2, but we didn't net it and the birds and neighbor kids got a lot of the cherries. We never have sprayed either tree and have never seen a worm so far. I got this tree from Stark Bros. There has been only one year we haven't picked cherries since it began producing. Had a bad late freeze that year. The only cherries saved were under the hanging leaves. My brother lives 52 miles from me and he has the same kind of tree, with the same result. We think its the greatest.

I am considering purchasing a bing cherry and a black tartarian cherry tree. I've read that these two planted together are good as far as pollination is concerned.

My question is how far apart can I plant them and still obtain good pollination? Do they need to be fairly close together?

I would also like to know how far apart to plant them. Thank you...

christi: For pollination purposes they don't have to be right next to each other, but closer is better. Twenty ft is better than 100. You will probably get a crop with two trees 100ft apart if everything else is favorable. If you are asking how much room the trees need, then about 8-10ft for dwarf and 20ft for full size. Dwarf being Gisela 5 and full size being Mazzard rootstock.

The Fruitnut

FruitNut-
So you would recommend tying branches down? I guess i haven't studied up on cherry pruning considering the trees are young.

I'm up to 4 sweets now. Lapins, Stella, Kristin and Black Gold... I'm half nuts and will probably rarely if ever get sweets here, but a guy can try.

Mine are spaced pretty close (5ft or so), but everything is on Gisela 5 which is very dwarfing, according to everything i've read. At some point i may tunnel them if i get the energy.

My Meteor sour is my best looking tree and is lightly loaded with cherries in its second year. Just showing some red, but its been very cool. I'm finding sour cherries to be pest free, with the only disease issue being powdery mildew last year (this year they got hit with Immunox).