Becki: They will be close enough for pollination no matter where they are in your yard. You do need a second variety. Most self fruitful varieties will work. Lapins is an example that is widely sold. Most other varieties will work as well. Rainier and Van are high quality fruit and good pollinators for Bing.

If you could plant the pollinator between the two Bings that would be great. But I won't dig up the present trees unless they were just planted. 15ft is good on full size rootstock, ie Mazzard. On Giesla 5 you could go 10ft or even 7.5ft apart.

The Fruitnut

Thank you for your quick reply! I just planted the trees today, so I don't think moving them is going to be an issue.

I was thinking of moving one of the Bings to the back yard. Right now they are in the front yard, and if I put one in the back there will be maybe 80 to 100 feet between it and the pollinator I put in its place, plus a garage. My instinct tells me that this will be too far away from the pollinator for the back yard tree to bear any fruit, am I correct?

I never really planned to have three cherry trees and after going out there and thinking about my options I'm not sure I want three fruit trees in the front, so I am ok with just having a nice flowering fruitless tree in the back yard. Just curious, though, if the tree would still be pollinated with that much distance and large obstacles in the way.

Thanks again,
Becki

Becki: That distance may not be ideal but you will probably get fruit. There could also be other trees nearby.

The Fruitnut

Becki:

Without knowing your location, or even your climate zone, giving you useful advice is guessing game, but I will try. Location is critical to growing sweet cherries.

If you live in California, or some areas of the Pacific Northwest, growing Bing cherries is a real possibility. But if you are east of the Mississippi river (with the exception of certain microclimates in Michigan), growing any sweet cherry is difficult, and Bing is one of the most challenging varieties of all.

So if you live in the east, and most places in the midwest, whether you plant Bing cherry trees 5 or 500 feet apart will not make much difference, since the chances you will ever pick ripe cherries are very slim.

Sweet cherries do not take kindly to hot, humid summer climates, and show their unhappiness by cracking and rotting on the trees. The trees themselves are also subject to a number of serious diseases in humid climates, such as bacterial canker. May 21 is little late to be planting any fruit tree in most places, indicating you may live in a northern area. If so, you can add late freezes to the list of problems that your cherry blossoms may have.

If you are fortunate enough to live in a climate with dry summers, you may be ok, but even so, Bing is a difficult cherry to pollinate and tricky to raise. If you would be happy with a nice flowering cherry, plant something like Kwanzan.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thank you, I am in California. We have very dry summers here. My parents grew Bing cherries successfully (I don't know why I never knew that one of their two trees wasn't a Bing, guess I never asked).

If I am planting too late it's due to ignorance, that and the fact that I picked these up locally a few days ago so I assumed they wouldn't be selling them if it wasn't OK to plant them.

Fruitnut: Thanks again for the information, I'll probably move that tree to the back and put a Rainier in its place.

Becki

This question help me out a lot. I planted a Black Tartarine last summer. The tree is beautiful, no diseases on it. I thought my North Star would pollinate it. I found out that I needed a different sweet cherry pollinator for it. I have been looking for a while at Bings. But if what everyone says it true I'll try and find another sweet cherry tree. They are seeming to be a tree than you leave to the experts more and more I read. Pain in the butts, should have planted another peach or a honey crisp apple.