Sweetheart cherry trees

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• Picking season: Late Early August
• Self-fertility: Self-fertile
• Fruit color: Red

Sweetheart has all the characteristic flavor elements of a good sweet cherry, predominantly sweet, but not at all sugary, with an underlying hint (no more than that) of bitter sharpness. The flesh is firm and almost crisp. The flavor is arguably richer than is usual amongst cherries. To get the best flavor, pick when fully ripe and eat immediately. We think all sweet cherries are best when eaten slightly cool, but not chilled.

Sweetheart is also self-fertile, and ripens very late in the cherry season.

Another useful characteristic is that the picking period is longer than most, because ripening is uneven - meaning you don't get the inevitable glut which is a feature of many sweet cherry varieties.

Sweetheart sweet cherry trees for sale

• Full-size 1-year bare-root tree $38.95
  Mature height: 16ft-24ft after 10 years
  Mahaleb rootstock
  

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How to grow

Sweetheart is a precocious sweet cherry, and starts to bear fruit relatively young - you may get fruit within a 2-3 of years of planting, whereas most cherries will start to bear fruit after about 3-4 years.

The main thing to beware of is its tendency to set too much fruit after the blossom season (a common problem with all the self-fertile varieties). You may need to thin the fruitlets just after the blossom has finished. Sweetheart responds well to thinning, which leads to better flavor and larger fruit size.

The other side of its tendency to over-crop is that Sweetheart produces a lot of blossom and looks very attractive in the spring.

Advice on fruit tree pollination.

History

Sweetheart was developed by the Summerland Research Station, British Columbia, Canada and released in 1990. It is a cross between Van and Newstar.

Sweetheart characteristics

• Gardening skillBeginner
• Self-fertilitySelf-fertile
• Pollination group3
• Pollinating othersGood
• Picking seasonLate - Early August
• UsesEating fresh
• Keeping (of fruit)1-3 days - keep in a fridge
• Summer maximum temperaturesCool ( 20-24C / 68-75F)Warm (25-30C / 76-85F)
• Country of originCanada
• Period of origin1950 - 1999
• Fruit colorRed