When to harvest Cherry (acid/morello) in the UK
Cherry (acid/morello) is planted rather than sown from seed, so the dates below are harvest dates.
Harvest dates by region
Cherry (acid/morello) shows the same dates across the whole UK, so every region below reads the same. Where a plant’s timings do follow the frost, Plot shifts them from the Midlands and Lowland Wales baseline using Met Office average frost dates.
| Where you are | Harvest |
|---|---|
| South West Coast and Cornwall | mid July to late August |
| South Coast and Channel | mid July to late August |
| Greater London (Urban Heat Island) | mid July to late August |
| South East and Home Counties | mid July to late August |
| East Anglia | mid July to late August |
| Midlands and Lowland Wales | mid July to late August |
| Wales and West Coast | mid July to late August |
| Northern England | mid July to late August |
| Scotland Lowlands and Central Belt | mid July to late August |
| Scotland Highlands and Islands | mid July to late August |
| Northern Ireland | mid July to late August |
| Channel Islands and Isle of Man | mid July to late August |
Growing notes
The cook's cherry: sharp fruit for pies, jam and liqueur, self-fertile, and happy fan-trained on a shady north-facing wall where nothing else will fruit. Net before the fruit colours up or the birds will take the lot.
At a glance
- Spacing
- 270 cm between plants
- Row spacing
- 400 cm
- Plants per m²
- 0.1
- Yield per plant
- 8 kg
- Eventual height
- 350 cm
- Eventual spread
- 350 cm
- Sun
- Partial
- Frost tender
- No
- Grows in a container
- Yes, 90 litres or more
- Minimum soil depth
- 45 cm
- Balcony rating
- 1 out of 5
Pruning: what to avoid
Acid cherries bear almost all their fruit on the previous year's shoots, so each year after harvest cut out a proportion of the older fruited wood to make room for new shoots - do not simply shorten all the young growth. Prune only after harvesting in late July or August; winter pruning invites silver leaf and bacterial canker.
Pruning group
acid cherry (renewal pruning after harvest)
Bare-root season
Bare-root stock is lifted and sold while dormant, from early November to late March. Container-grown plants can go in at other times of year, but bare-root is cheaper and establishes well.
How long until it crops
Expect the first worthwhile pick about 4 years after planting, and a productive life of roughly 25 years.
What usually goes wrong
- birds
- bacterial canker
- silver leaf
- cherry blackfly
Related guides
Timings cross-checked against RHS guidance for cherry (acid/morello).