Photo: Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen — Public domain · source
Survives zone 3 through 8
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
Tart, acidic flavor unsuited to fresh eating for most people but prized for pies, preserves, juice, and dried cherries — Montmorency is the archetypal culinary sour cherry. ⚠ Kernels/pits cyanogenic.
- Hardiness
- Zone 3–8
- Habit
- Tree
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- July–Aug
- Mature size
- Small tree 4–8 m, naturally compact — crops even on a north wall
- Light
- PARTIAL to full sun — the shade-tolerant cherry; crops even on a north-facing wall
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)
- Environment
- Temperate
- Native range
- Thought to have originated in Europe and western Asia as a natural hybrid of sweet cherry (Prunus avium) and European dwarf cherry (Prunus fruticosa).
- Status
- Cultivated
- Years to fruit
- 3–4 yrs
- Growth speed
- moderate
- Spacing
- 400 cm (157 in) apart — about 16 m² (172 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Alternate, pointed-oval, saw-toothed margins, 5–15 cm long.
- Root system
- Worth knowing that in cultivation this is usually the rootstock's root system, not the species' — most Prunus are sold grafted, and vigour, suckering and soil tolerance follow the stock rather than the top. On its own roots the species is shallow-rooted, with the bulk in the top 40–60 cm spreading well beyond the canopy, so it dislikes cultivation underneath and competes badly with grass.
- Fruit description
- Bright red, round drupe about 1.5–2 cm across with juicy, tart flesh and a small stone.
- Propagation
- Budded or grafted onto Mahaleb seedling or dwarfing Gisela-series rootstocks.
- Pollination
- SELF-FERTILE (unlike sweet cherry)
The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.
Growing guide
Fertilizing. A light feeder — a low-nitrogen fertilizer applied in early spring is usually sufficient, and established trees in good soil often need none at all.
Growing tips. Most cultivars are self-fertile, though a nearby pollinizer improves cropping; needs roughly 700–1,200 chill hours; blooms later than sweet cherry and so is somewhat less prone to spring-frost damage; susceptible to leaf spot, brown rot, and black knot.
Companion planting. Susceptible to the black knot fungus shared with cultivated plums and sweet cherry — remove nearby infected Prunus wood to reduce spread.
Grow journal
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