I don't grow cherries, but I grow apples. The most important thing is keeping the tree healthy, and I think the biggest factor is keeping the root zone (all the way out to the drip line - which is the farthest branch tip) free of weeds and competition. The best way to do this to to put down a weed barrier (such as corrugated cardboard) and compost on top of the weed barrier. This keeps the trees growing strong. The next thing to do is protect the apples you want to keep, and thin them at the same time. To thin, you want to remove almost 90% of your fruit! Most experts recommend leaving no more than one apple every six inches unless the tree is big/old and can support more weight. By thinning, you will get nice full size apples. To protect the apples from insect damage, you can either spray them repeatedly with toxic chemicals, spray them a few times with caolin clay, or do what I do, and bag the fruit. See link below. Here is a link that might be useful: Fruit Bagging

Jollyrd: Watch your tree's growth to gauge whether you need to fertilize. If you are getting very little new growth each year (like a couple inches or less) and water or disease aren't the reasons, then you could add some fertilizer. However, if you have decent soil and have mulched, you really shouldn't need any fertilizer. I rarely fertilize my cherries, maybe once every 5 to 10 years is all and that is because I get paranoid that they could be doing more and throw some fertilizer on them. It has never made a difference. Hoosier: Most if not all pie cherries are self fruitful, so you only need one tree. I have both a Northstar and an Evans/Bali tree. I have developed a strong preference for the Evans cherry. It is late to ripen, mid August for me, while the Northstar ripens in July and my Early Richmond cherries ripen in late June/early July. I really like the Evans for a number of reasons. It sets fruit prolifically. Last year I got about 25 lbs. from the one tree, which is just over 6 feet tall, and because it has so much fruit close together, picking is very efficient. It just seems to be absolutely loaded with cherries every year. The Evans also has a sweeter cherry than the Northstar, and the cherries are quite a bit larger. The one drawback I've found to the Evans is that the cherries are slightly astringent to my taste until they are dead ripe when it goes away. That means that while they turn bright red about the first of August, I net them and wait a couple weeks before picking. I'm sure this also helps increase the sugar content. When fully ripe, they have a wonderful cherry flavor, and if dried, are really very sweet. Perhaps someone in a more disease prone area can add their experience with Evans regarding diseases such as brown rot. I understand from others on this forum that brown rot hits later maturing fruits much more than early ones, so the later ripening of the Evans might make it more prone to brown rot if it is a problem in your area. The attached link is a picture I took of the Evans 2 years ago. Here is a link that might be useful:

Well, the answer is probably: it depends. I have a lot of birds that nest around my house. Last year was our first summer in the new place and I _thought_ my cherry trees might be Rainier because as soon as they started getting that blush they all dissapeared ;( but this year I netted them and turns out they are Bing... just never even got close to maturing before the birds got them. So if you have a fair number birds around and you want some or any fruit then you might want to think about netting the grapes. Not so sure if they will bother the larger fruit. Charles

Hello there, Your post was definitely useful! Hope I'm posting this in the right place. A bit new at this. Just wanted to ask, would pruning a dwarf cherry tree be okay at this stage? I've attached a picture. Pruning is terrifying for a newbie gardener, worried I might end up harming the poor thing somehow. Where would you recommend the cut should be made? Thanks loads!