Life is just a bowl of cherries at the moment, because we are picking our own from the fruit cage and eating them for breakfast. Our crop, probably only five pounds I admit, has definitely been helped by the warm weather because cherries do best in warmer areas on fertile soil. We have good soil, but Spring Cottage is often cold and bleak so this may be a flash in the pan. My old village of Hook Norton though, once famous for its cherry fairs, was much warmer with a seam of ironstone under the ground that batted up the heat. It’s hard to imagine picking my own when I recall the huge black-cherry trees in the old cherry orchards of the Tamar Valley, where you needed an unwieldy double ladder before you could reach the fruit. These monster trees usually took ten years to fruit or more. However we are picking cherries after four and with our feet firmly on the ground, due to new rootstocks which have produced smaller trees that are also more resistant to the weather. In time, I hope to get a crop of over ten pounds. My cherry is ‘Stella’ and it’s grafted on to semi-vigorous Colt rootstock used commercially in parts of America and Italy, although developed at East Malling Research Station, in Kent, in 1977. Ming Yang, an experienced fruit grower and co-founder of Pomona Fruits, told me that trees on Colt rootstock generally reach 12ft in height (up to 4m). “They can be restricted and the technique is to slow the growth on the longer leaders by weighing them down.” Ming recommends tying a poly bag full of soil on the end of any long branches. “This slows the sap and produces fruit earlier,” he explained. “Colt rootstock also prevents runoff, when the young fruit aborts due to cool weather.” I can hardly wait to get out there and attack my branches!

“Any pruning is done in the growing season (as with all stone fruit) and this is the time to cut away any branches that cross,” Ming explained. Cherries are also heavy feeders and the RHS recommends applying Growmore or Vitax Q4 at 100g per sq m (4oz per sq yd) in late winter to early spring. Mulching with organic matter, such as well rotted farmyard manure, is also recommended. If fruiting is poor, sulphate of potash can also be applied 15g per sq m (½oz per sq yd).

Pomona Fruits (www.pomonafruits.co.uk, 0845 676 0607) supply several self-fertile varieties, which means that you only need a single tree. ‘Stella’ is the most reliable cropper, with large dark-red fruit that’s produced in late-July. The more compact ‘Summer Sun’ is a couple of weeks earlier, producing dark-red fruit even in cooler areas. ‘Kordia’ produces much darker fruit in mid-August. Gisela 5 (G5) is a newer dwarfer rootstock which produces trees that reach up to nine feet (3m) after five years. It is tolerant of clay and light, chalky soils. However trees grown on Gisela cannot support themselves so you will need a 2m permanent stake or other means of support. Training against a wall or trellis works well with Gisela 5 and it makes it easier to net your tree if you don’t own a fruit cage. Otherwise you will just be feeding the blackbirds.

It is tempting to grow these compact cherry trees in pots, but my own experience wasn’t very successful. The fruit dropped off, despite daily watering, and our ‘Stella’ has only done well since it went into the ground. Top of the crops — Page 18