Cherry – Sweet

Q: I recently purchased a ‘Tartarian’ cherry tree at a home improvement store. I can’t find much information on growing it. Any info on this subject would be appreciated.

A: Sweet cherry trees (‘Bing’, ‘Tartarian’, ‘Ranier’, etc) do not survive here; our heat and disease pressure is too great. You might get a ‘Stella’ or ‘North Star’ sour cherry to survive but they rarely produce fruit because the flowers are hurt by late frosts in spring.

The store was mistaken to sell it to you but you bear some responsibility for not researching the tree before your purchase.

Why not start with something easy to grow like raspberry, blackberry, blueberry or fig? They are easy to find and rarely have problems in Georgia.