there's a good long thread on low-chills on this forum, if you search it should come up. the pair recommended is Royal Lee and Minnie Royal. You need both for pollination. One issue that comes up is that for at least the first few years the Minnie Royal blooms much earlier than the Royal Lee, preventing pollination. Some are planting 'Lapin' as a pollinator to overcome that issue. Results are unclear.

I got two cherries this year from 'Minnie Royal' as there was some cross pollination and WOW! How wonderful it was to pick a cherry and eat it right then and there. They were a little underripe but I wanted to get them before the birds discovered them.

Thanks! He didn't have a pollinator for his tree, but, maybe it doesn't qualify for "the best." I will do a search today.

Suzi

This post was edited by desertdance on Mon, Apr 14, 14 at 13:10

Not many Americans know about this, but there is a low chill Spanish heirloom variety cherry called Cristobalina. It is self-fertile and requires about 200 chill hours.

Cristobalina has been grown for generations of cherry growers in Andalucia and Valencia, where winters are as mild as they are in Southern California, and reliably produces fruit despite lack of a cold winter. It is known to flower mid-February and produces dark purple, delicious sweet cherries. The only negative is that the fruit does not have as much edible flesh as other more popular cherry varieties, but thinning the tree can help lead to more full-sized fruit.

There are two trees. The royal lee and Minnie royal. They need 100 hours chill. You will need both for cross pollination.

They prefer 200-300 chill hours, but can still be grown with less. Somewhere like Lemon Grove in San Diego probably gets 150 chill hours in a good year. Royal Lee can still produce fruit, but there will probably not be as much of it.

There are also Capulin cherries, which are more popular in southern Mexico and the Andes, but many people do not consider these "real cherries". and many people are put off by their resinous taste. Actually a story behind how I started growing cherry trees, I found a Capulin tree in the discount fruit tree and orchard section at Lowe's, and excitedly took it home, but then after doing some online research into what it actually was, I went back and returned it. It was a great deal too, only 12 dollars. Feeling dejected, I was determined to find a real cherry tree. Finding a nursery that sold real cherries where I live was much harder, none of the big box stores carried them, probably because they are not regarded as suitable to this climate zone and the coastal area does not get much winter chill.

A Capulin also grows a bit different than common sweet cherry varieties do. Like the Black Wild Cherry species, Capulins flower/fruit on racemes. (technically Capulins are actually real cherries, but they are about as different from normal sweet cherry varieties as sweet cherries are from sour varieties)

'Abaloo' cherry is being sold by Paradise Nursery. It's a tart cherry variety that comes from Iran, so it can handle fewer chill hours.

The nursery is located at the Northern edge of Los Angeles. Their site claims that this cherry can grow well in Los Angeles and Orange County, but the size of the cherries appear to be kind of small.

quoting from the site:

"Sour Cherries, contrary to their counterpart cherries, are smaller and pleasantly tart and do not requirement much cold to produce fruit in even mild winter climates like in Los Angeles and Orange County. The tree provides beautiful white blossoms and an abundance of fruit. The fruit ripens in the summer, becoming dark red and tart. The tree is relatively small and can easily be managed to stay under 10 ft tall. In hot dry climates such as Los Angeles, sour cherry trees thrive in areas with morning sun and afternoon shade to protect from intense sun and heat. Our nursery has been growing this type of tree in Los Angeles for over 15 years and has been a very consistent producer. Originating from the middle east, the sour cherry tree produces dark red to almost black tart and juicy fruit that is great for cooking and sometimes eaten fresh when fully ripe. It is a small beautiful tree with white blossoms. Sour Cherries have been a popular type of cherry for Iranians for many years. It’s impossible for Persians to not have fond childhood memories of enjoying these deliciously tart cherries by the handful. Sour Cherries, unlike regular cherries, are smaller in size and have a pleasant tart flavor. Sour Cherries in Iran are referred to as Albaloo and are used in a variety of Persian recipes."

Apparently in Iran the "Albaloo" tart cherries that they grow do not require as much cold to produce fruit as their sweet cherries. I don't believe this is true of tart cherries in general, just the Iranian variety. The writer probably did not realize this, only being familiar with cherries from his country of origin. I'll bet Albaloo is substantially different from the tart varieties of cherry we are all familiar with. Don't forget the sweet and tart cherry varieties in America were all brought from Europe (mainly Northern France and England). The cherries grown in Iran are from a totally different lineage.

The cherry variety 'Lapins' can also produce in Southern California, though it's not the most reliable; fruit production will be on and off in different years. Lapins is really more of a "medium" chill variety. It's the cherry variety fruit enthusiasts were trying to grow in the region before Royal Lee / Royal Minnie Lee later became available.

It really helps if cherries have a little partial shade in this climate. This will help them meet their chill requirement in the Winter (warm days really detract from chill accumulation) and help protect them from the scorching sun in the hot dry Summers. All my cherries in partial shade were packed with blossoms in late February. The ones that get full sun barely got any blossoms at all this year.

A number of local San Diego nurseries carry the Royal Lee and Minnie Royal varieties. I've seen both of them at the Walter Andersen nursery, but you should be able to find at one local to you. Best of luck!

Has anyone mentioned on this thread that it can take Minnie Royal and Royal Lee about seven years to "sync" up their flowering/pollination times? If heard of some folks using Lapins to bridge the gap. Ive had my pair now for three years, I think. Dave Wilson Nursery distributesother low chill cherry varieties available commercially only, but you have to be able to buy a lot of trees at once, I think it was 100.

I used to grow Minnie Royal and Royal Lee. Their flowering times were the same from the get go. I replaced them because while the fruit from Minnie Royal was delicious, the fruit from Royal Lee wasn't all that great.

Brettay, where are you?

Novato, CA. 30 minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge and just south of Sonoma county.

My Rainier bloomed just 1 week after my Royal Minnie Lee. So there was a bit of bloom overlap. Both trees are very young, just planted Fall last year.

midway between L.A. and San Diego, zone 10

Both trees were in partial shade (which I think helped them come out of dormancy faster than the cherries planted in full sun).

Rainier is [supposedly] a higher chill variety so I would have expected it to take much longer. Again, I think it had to do with the shade.