Although sweet cherries can also be grown as fans, they dislike hard pruning and are happiest as standards or half standards given minimum pruning. Cherries as a class dislike poorly drained, heavy soils. The sweet varieties do well on deep, light to medium loams while the sour ones will tolerate poor soils, provided they are not waterlogged. Lime in the soil is not an essential as is commonly supposed. Morello cherries are self-fertile and will pollinate any sweet cherry flowering concurrently.
Most sweet cherries are infertile with their own pollen and often with certain other varieties also.
It is important to select varieties for interplanting whose blossom period coincides or overlaps. A few varieties called universal donors are compatible with all groups flowering at the same time. Cultivation Young trees, not exceeding five years old, transplant best. Planting can be carried out at any time from mid October to mid-March, whenever the soil is sufficiently friable to be worked between the roots. Plant firmly and stake securely.