I had a dwarf pie cherry for years. It finally died from borers. I didn't have any success with sweet cherries.

I believe sweet cherries are not recommended for the Ozarks, but who knows....Good luck with them.

I have a North Star pie cherry that at the age of 8 or 9, finally produced lots of cherries last year. It is just now budded out, still not showing any color.

GD

There are no bing cherries being grown in this area that I am aware of. The ones that are grown here are the pie cherries and the birds get nearly the entire crop. They make excellent jelly and wine if you can manage to keep the birds from devouring the crop.

i had a excellent, beautiful cherry crop last year, the day they were ready to pick, i called my son. by the time he got there--a red winged blackbird had stripped the tree--left only the pits hanging. would have looked funny, if i had'nt been so furious.

I have a lady that I worked with that had cherry trees. They were about the size of a dime and kind of on the tart side. I made wine from them and think I could have made a bomb with it. It was some strong stuff. I think you should ask questions but go ahead and try it (which it sounds like you have). Just because they say you can not do it does not mean you can't. I do believe in zone pushing.

I think Albuquerque is zone 7 (like us) but maybe it has something to do with the altitude or chilling hours, who knows. It was loaded with blossoms, tho I can't see any little baby fruits yet. For whatever reason I don't have much bird trouble. Maybe because there aren't many trees close by and the few that are are pines. I'm counting my blessings on that.

I planted Bing Cherries this year against the advice of everyone. Who knows? maybe I will get lucky.
James

I see a few clusters of tiny fruits now. I couple of them have little brown "stings". That's what I always heard them called anyway when you see them on green beans. I'm going to drop by Lowe's or Walmart today and get some fruit tree spray.