June 28, 2025, 10:11 am | Read time: 7 minutes
With their beautiful blossoms, bright fruits, and manageable care requirements, sour cherries are ideal plants for home gardens. Their compact growth makes them suitable for smaller gardens as well. Gardening author Katharina Petzholdt explains on myHOMEBOOK what is important when planting and caring for these fruit trees.
The sour cherry (Prunus cerasus) is also known as Weichsel or Weichsel cherry. It likely originated from a natural cross between the wild cherry and the steppe cherry. Although its exact origin is not definitively established, it is believed to have originated in Asia Minor. Like its sweeter relatives, the sweet cherries, the sour cherry can be divided into two groups. The so-called Morello cherries are characterized by their dark, staining juice, while the Amarelle cherries have light, nearly colorless juice. Compared to the popular sweet cherries, sour cherries were long overlooked. However, interest is growing again, likely because the sour cherry generally grows more compactly, making it suitable for smaller gardens and less demanding than the sweet cherry.
Overview
Appearance and Growth
Depending on the rootstock and training form, sour cherries can grow up to ten meters tall, but they usually remain much smaller. They grow as small trees or shrubs. The young bark is smooth, shiny red-brown, and dotted with small light pores. As they age, the bark becomes firmer, developing the typical cherry ringed bark. The leaves are up to twelve centimeters long and taper to a point. The white flowers, which grow in small clusters, appear in April or May, depending on the variety. From July, the intensely red, sometimes slightly translucent fruits ripen.
Planting Sour Cherries
The ideal time to plant sour cherries is in the fall. The planting hole should be about twice as wide and deep as the root ball. If the soil is compacted, it is advisable to create a gravel drainage at the bottom of the planting hole, as sour cherries are very sensitive to waterlogging. Improving the backfill with compost and some horn meal gives the young sour cherry the best start.
When planting, make sure that the grafting point—recognizable by the thick knot on the trunk—remains about 10 centimeters above the ground. To ensure the tree is well-supported as it grows, it should be staked. After the soil is firmly packed, water generously.
Location and Soil
Sour cherries need a full-sun location to allow the fruits to ripen optimally. The soil should preferably be rich in humus, deep, well-drained, and loose. Good companion plants for sour cherries include lily of the valley, nasturtium, chives, and sweet woodruff.
Variety Tips
Unlike sweet cherries, most sour cherry varieties are self-fertile, meaning they do not require a second variety for pollination. Among the best varieties is ‘Achat’—a variety well-suited for fresh consumption due to its relatively high sugar content.
Another good choice is the particularly robust ‘Morina’ variety. Its brown-red, sweet-sour fruits are juicy and easy to pit. The robust ‘Safir’ variety produces relatively large, black-red fruits with soft, sweet-sour, and juicy flesh. Balcony and terrace gardeners need not forgo sour cherries: ‘Jachim’ grows narrow and reaches only two to three meters in height.
Caring for Sour Cherries
Sour cherries do not require much care. However, those who pay attention to a few things will be rewarded with healthy trees and a good harvest.
How to Water Sour Cherries
Sour cherries are more drought-tolerant than sweet cherries and generally prefer it a bit drier rather than too wet. Only in the initial period after planting should they be watered regularly. After that, the plants only need watering during prolonged dry spells. However, if the sour cherry is grown in a container, it will require consistent watering.
Fertilization Needs
In spring, lightly worked-in compost provides the sour cherry with all essential nutrients. A mulch layer, such as grass clippings, not only prevents evaporation but also promotes humus development, which the sour cherry greatly appreciates. If the plant is grown in a container, a slow-release fertilizer can be added in addition to compost.
Do You Need to Prune Sour Cherries?
Regular pruning ensures healthy, well-lit crowns in sour cherries and enhances fruit quality. Training pruning involves targeted cuts to shape the crown. Standard and half-standard trees are usually trained to a pyramidal crown with three to four evenly spaced main branches. For weak-growing cherry trees, training as a spindle tree is also possible.
Since sour cherries predominantly fruit on one-year-old wood, maintenance pruning is ideally done right after harvest. Spent shoots are cut back to a few buds or a young side shoot to encourage new growth. Additionally, dead, diseased, and inward-growing shoots are removed to keep the crown airy and prevent diseases.
Winter Hardiness
Sour cherries are winter-hardy in this region. However, a whitewash in winter can protect the bark of young trees from frost cracks.
Propagation
Sour cherries are propagated by grafting. This involves placing either a single bud (budding) in summer or a scion (grafting) in winter of the desired variety onto a suitable rootstock. The choice of rootstock influences growth strength and site adaptability.
Diseases and Pests
One of the most common diseases affecting sour cherries is Monilia tip blight. The fungus enters the plant through the flowers and causes the shoots to die back from the tips. Affected shoots should be pruned back to healthy wood and disposed of. Preventive measures include choosing robust varieties, regular thinning, and spraying with plant-strengthening agents such as horsetail broth or manure.
Among the most common pests is the black cherry aphid. It appears from bud break to summer and causes curled leaves and honeydew. Young shoots should be regularly checked. In case of a mild infestation, spraying with rapeseed oil or potassium soap can help. A strong pruning in summer can also be beneficial.
The larvae of the cherry sawfly resemble small, dark slugs. They scrape off layers of the leaves, leaving only the lower skin and veins. To combat them, it is usually sufficient to hand-pick the larvae.
Feeding holes in leaves and fruits may indicate the presence of the winter moth. Preventive measures include applying glue rings to the trunks in the fall to catch the flightless females before they lay eggs.
Toxicity
Sour cherries are edible and not toxic. However, the pits contain amygdalin, a substance that can produce cyanide in the body.
Alternatives
An alternative to the sour cherry is the sweet cherry. It usually bears sweeter fruits, grows more vigorously, and has higher soil and care requirements. The Cornelian cherry is also a good alternative. It grows as an early-blooming shrub or small tree and bears tart fruits that are well-suited for making jelly, juice, jam, or puree. A third option is mulberries. Depending on the type and variety, they produce up to ten-centimeter-long, elongated fruits that can be eaten raw or processed.
Use in the Garden
Depending on space and rootstock, sour cherries can be planted as bush trees, spindles, half-standards, or standards. They make good house trees but can also be grown in containers and on trellises, at least for smaller varieties.
Use in the Kitchen
Sour cherries are ready for harvest in June and July, depending on the variety and location. It is advisable to harvest the cherries with the stem attached, as they last longer this way. In the refrigerator, they keep for only a few days when well-packaged. Sour cherries are especially suitable for processing into jam, jelly, juice, compote, or syrup, but they can also be eaten raw in fruit salads, with fruit quark, or on their own. They can also be preserved, dried, frozen, or made into fruit leather.
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Bee Friendliness
Sour cherries provide plenty of pollen and nectar for bees and other insects.