I’ve been reading all i can on other topic lists about growing cherries, but cannot find much about growing in VA. I currently have Rainier, Kristin, Blackgold, Whitegold, Montmorency, and Surefire varieties that are 1 yr old. But, after what I’ve read I’m considering taking them all out and not even trying cherries. Someone talk me off the cliff 
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I’m in Va and they do fine for me other than rot. Not sure where all the cherry phobia comes from.
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Do you spray your trees? Because I won’t be. Also which varieties have done well for you?
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Highly doubt you will get much stone fruit on the east coast without spraying. If you plan to not spray I would reconsider growing any stone fruit. You may have some years that you see fruit, but most will be total loss to rot.
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It depends on the type of cherry. Tart cherries are resistant to brown rot, you may be able to get away with not spraying them. As child we had tart cherries and never sprayed and got some nice crops.
Sweet cherries are a different matter. Brown rot is a real problem. You may have a few years before the rot shows up but eventually you will need to spray to control it. BlackGold and WhiteGold are good sweet cherry choices for your area and for the Eastern United States. I would take a look at the Eastern cherry thread most of information there will apply to growing cherries in Virginia.
And some more information in this follow up thread:
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I agree. My montmorency has been noticeably easier than the sweets in the rot department. I didn’t spray the montmorency this year and the fruit was near perfect. I was impressed, but need to see more no spray years to be a believer.
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My Montmorency would rot a fair amount. It was better than the sweet cherries but it’s not that great. I would say skip the cherries and grow raspberries blackberries currants or blueberries if you want something to cook with and don’t want to spray.
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I gave up on cherries years ago. Birds and rots got more than I ever did.
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Sorry to say I’m 6b (now 7a?) Virginia and I took all the cherries out. Grew like mad, flowered, some fruit but never made it to harvest. It took a Landcruiser, chain, a week of pre digging to boot, and several pulls to get one of them out. Too much time spent and no fruit to show for it.
My Ozark premier is kind of like that. A really big established tree, huge trunk, blooms like crazy and very early. One year actually made it to some small fruit which was then swiftly killed by Frost. Less than 5 fruit ever. I say topwork.
I think this is it several years ago. Sadly it’s been my website background so that gives me pause. It looks like I had done some summer height pruning. I can see where Japanese Beatles have been feasting. I love this photo nonetheless.
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I tried in the Richmond area. Fruit split horribly due to the clay soil, and between that and the drops I’m not sure much of anything lasted long enough to rot. The overall fruit set was also pretty bad. It’s odd since my Japanese plum tree is one of my biggest successes.
I also had huge shothole problems starting in the late summer or early fall, and the Japanese beetles preferred the cherries above all others. Between the two it was entirely possible for a 7-8 foot, 5 year old tree to end up completely defoliated by October.
I pulled my 2 multi-grafted trees after 6-7 years of failure this spring.
If you are going to try you need something very crack resistant or really good soil improvement, and controlling shothole and the beetles are a must.
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If you want no spray, give bush cherries a try. Taste just like a pie cherry once cooked. Pretty hardy plants. Mine fruited on their second year.
Those didn’t work for me… they were worse than Montmorency for diseases and just as bad for bugs. They are northern plants and like heat even less than sour cherries.
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Not worth it in my opinion. At least as far as sweet cherries are concerned. I’m next door in WV and they have been terrible for me. On the other hand tart cherries in the form of bush cherries have been great. I’d definitely recommend them.
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