Sweet cherry

Sweet cherry, or bird cherry (lat. Prunus avium) — a deciduous woody plant reaching 10 meters in height from the Rosaceae family. In the wild it grows in the forests of Ukraine, southern Russia, Crimea, the Caucasus, as well as in other regions of Europe, North Africa and Western Asia. It is also widely cultivated. Wild cherry is the oldest form of cherry. It is believed that it was known as early as 8000 BCE in Europe and Anatolia (the territory of modern Denmark and Switzerland).

The small town of Kerasunt between Pharnacia and Trapezus became famous for its cherries. It was there that the Romans first encountered them, giving the name "Cerasunt fruits", cerasi. From this come the Italian ciliega, French cerise, Spanish cereza, Portuguese cereja, German Kirsche, English cherry, Russian "chereshnya".

Sweet cherry is a fast-growing tree, especially in its youth. The crown is ovate, sometimes conical. Shoots are of two types: auxiblasts and brachyblasts. The bark in youth is brown, reddish or silvery, with numerous stripes, covered with brown lenticels for a long time, sometimes peeling in transverse thin films. Buds are of three types – generative, vegetative and mixed.

The root system is of a horizontal type; sometimes under favorable conditions well-branched vertical roots form. A taproot forms in the 1st-2nd year of life, later it branches.

Leaves are shortly pointed, obovate, oblong-ovate or elliptic, slightly wrinkled, serrate. Petioles reach up to 16 cm in length, with two glands at the base of the blade. Flowers are white, bisexual, appear on shoots before leaf unfolding, forming almost sessile, few-flowered umbels. There are five petals and five sepals, many stamens, and one pistil. Flowers bloom in April-May.

Fruits are fleshy drupes with a juicy mesocarp. Fruit shape is oval, globose or heart-shaped, color ranges from light yellow (almost white) to dark red (almost black). Wild sweet cherry fruits are smaller – up to 2 cm in diameter. The stone is spherical or slightly elongated, surface smooth. Seeds consist of a coat, embryo and endosperm. The seed coat has a yellowish-brown, sometimes dark red tint.

Frost resistance: moderate

Cultivars: early: Fatezh, Iput, Chermashnaya, Melitopol early, Dachnitsa, Priusadebnaya, Proshchalnaya. Medium: Severnaya, Oryol pink, Pamyati Astakhova, Priyma, Francis. Late: Large-fruited, Melitopol black, Drogana.

Location: prefers sunny and sheltered from wind sites. Does not like acidic soils, nor locations with shallow groundwater (not closer than 1.5 m). It fruits best on elevated sites, near fences and buildings, where much snow accumulates in winter.

The tree is self-sterile; 2-3 additional trees are needed for pollination.

Planting: planting is recommended in spring. Before planting, the soil should be improved. The planting site should be dug to a spade's depth and fertilizers applied: manure or compost at 8-10 kg/m², superphosphate 150-200 g, potash fertilizers – 100 g or complex fertilizers – 150-200 g/m². Recommended soil reaction pH 6.5-7. It is also recommended to add fertilizers into the planting hole – 10 kg of humus, non-acid peat or well-rotted compost, and 500 g of ash. The hole should be dug and prepared 2 weeks before planting.

Pruning: from 2-3 years of age pruning is necessary – remove suckers, lower branches to form the trunk, shorten the leader by redirecting to a lateral branch, and thin the crown. Pruning is carried out in early spring before bud swelling.

Care: care consists of regular pruning. In spring and autumn, trunks and the bases of scaffold branches should be whitewashed. In autumn it is recommended to wrap trunks with conifer branches or other material to protect against rodents. It is also necessary to protect ripe fruits from birds – special nets are used to cover trees.

Diseases: coccomycosis, clasterosporiosis, moniliosis, brown spot, cherry shoot moth, gummosis, dwarfing, false polypore, mosaic disease, mosaic ring spot, branch dieback, scab, sulphur-yellow polypore, Stecklenberg virosis.

Pests: brown fruit mite, cherry sawfly, cherry slug sawfly, cherry shoot borer, yellow plum sawfly, sapwood borer, western unpaired bark beetle, tussock moth, fruit striped moth.

Reproduction: Sweet cherry is propagated by several methods: seed, stump suckers and root suckers. In natural conditions seed reproduction predominates.

Uses: The fruits of sweet cherry contain: sugars (fructose and glucose), organic acids, vitamins A, B1, B2, C, E, PP, microelements (iron, iodine and iron), macroelements (magnesium, potassium, calcium and others), pectic substances, and anthocyanins. Cherry fruits are highly valued for their pleasant sweet taste. Fruits are consumed fresh, and also used to make juices, compotes, fruit wine, preserves and jam. It is also a valuable melliferous plant, providing pollen, nectar and propolis-like resin. Honey productivity 35 kg/ha.