Leatha asked, “I have a question. I had two pie cherries and a more ornamental cherry (I was told it would also produce cherries) planted last year. One pie cherry died, and I replaced it this spring with a self-pollinating peach. Didn’t think about the cherries – do you think they will pollinate each other even if they are not the same cherry?”
Leatha, usually a sweet cherry needs another variety of sweet cherry to produce fruit. A tree of the same variety will not pollinate the tree of the same variety. Unless there is another sweet cherry in the neighborhood, you will probably need to buy a sweet cherry of a different variety than you have now. This would be beneficial even for the self-pollinating trees.
This is true for most fruiting trees. Apples need a different variety to produce fruit. For example, you would need a Red Delicious and a Golden Delicious to pollinate each other for fruit.
I wish you luck in growing a cherry tree. When I was a kid, we had a sweet cherry in our backyard and climbing and picking the fruit was an annual event! Mom would freeze the cherries and make mouthwatering cherry pies and cherry cobbler!
Image by Couleur
