Tart Cherry Pollination Map
Tart cherries are self-fertile, so one tree will fruit on its own. Balaton and Danube open a little ahead of Montmorency, Meteor and Evans Bali, and every tart cherry here overlaps with the others.
One tree is enough
Tart cherries set fruit with their own pollen. A second tree is only for more cherries, not for pollination.
Two early bloomers
Balaton and Danube, both Hungarian pie cherries, bloom a little before Montmorency, Meteor and Evans Bali.
Dwarf sour cherries
Cutie Pie, Juliet, Romeo and Wowza! are University of Saskatchewan bush cherries. They're self-fertile too and have their own map below.
Late frost is the real risk
If you have a frost pocket, the later bloom groups give you a little more margin.
Find a partner for your tree
Pick a variety you have or want. You'll see every tree we carry that will pollenize it, with what's in stock first.
Tart cherries
Find the tree you want fruit on in the left column, then read across. Each column is a pollen source.
Good match (same bloom group)Partial match (one group apart)Bloom too far apartPoor pollen (triploid, pollen-sterile or disputed)Won't work (same clone or incompatible)Same variety
Sort:
* bloom group is our best estimate.
Dwarf sour cherries (University of Saskatchewan)
Find the tree you want fruit on in the left column, then read across. Each column is a pollen source. Bloom groups here compare these four with each other, not with the tart cherries above.
Good match (same bloom group)Partial match (one group apart)Bloom too far apartPoor pollen (triploid, pollen-sterile or disputed)Won't work (same clone or incompatible)Same variety
Sort:
* bloom group is our best estimate.
Bloom groups at a glance
Tart cherries
4 Mid
- Evan's Bali (self-fertile)
- FE (estimated)
- Meteor (self-fertile)
- Montmorency (self-fertile)
Dwarf sour cherries (University of Saskatchewan)
How to read these maps
Bloom groups
Every variety gets a bloom group from 1 (very early) to 7 (very late). Groups only compare varieties of the same fruit. An apple in group 4 and a plum in group 4 don't bloom at the same time.
Close enough counts
Two varieties in the same group or one group apart overlap enough to pollenize each other, as long as the pollen is good and they aren't the same tree genetically.
Where the groups come from
Published bloom records come first. For apples that's measured bloom dates from the Apple Biodiversity Collection in Nova Scotia, checked against multi-year nursery and extension groupings. Next comes sourced facts, like a sport blooming with its parent. Anything marked * is our best estimate from the variety's origin and relatives.
Your spring will vary
A warm or cold spring shifts every tree earlier or later, but the order stays about the same. If you watch your trees bloom and something doesn't match, tell us. Your notes make these maps better.
More pollination maps