Hello I am in zone 9 here in Fresno. I recieved a Bing cherry tree as a gift. What type of area should i plant it? How much sun,soil type is optimal? Any tips would be appreciated.

I thought cherries didn't grow well in such a hot zone, so I have never tried one in central Texas (zone 8b?). Good luck - I hope you are successful!

Do you know what rootstock it is on? That knowledge will help with knowing what soil is acceptable.  Do you get a lot of rain?  Cherries don't like to be in standing water, if it's an issue, they need to be planted in a raised bed with well drained soil.  Like other Prunis, they like as much sun as you can give them. 

In addition, sweet cherries require a pollinator. So either a second tree or graft pollinating varieties onto the Bing.  Black Tartarian, Rainier and Lapins are great pollinating partners for Bing. 

I hope it does well for you. 

Scott

Thank you Scott, it is small and not sure the rootstock. We are in a drought no rain hardly

If you know what nursery it's from, they can usually tell you the rootstock and what it's requirements are.   There are a couple dwarfing rootstocks that require the tree to be staked it's whole life as well.

If it's on Mazzard or a non-dwarfing rootstock, remember you can control it's size with pruning. 

What ever the rootstock, avoid heavy clay type soil as much as you can. 

I'm glad I could help. 

Van is another good pollinating partner.

They grow well but they don't set fruit because they need anywhere from 500-600 hrs of cold. 

Hi Brian,

Dave Wilson Nursery lists your Bing as requiring 700 hours of chill and a pollenizer
is required.Do you get/have either?

http://www.davewilson.com/product-information/product/cherries

So you would be tying up two spots for 3 years to see if it will fruit for you
in a marginal zone.

A better bet would be to pick up a Royal Lee and Minnie Royal which require
practically no chilling.Bare root season is almost here and for $50.00 you
could pick up the pair.I've got them on Mazzard and New Root 1,my neighbor
has the pair on colt.I got a hand full in second leaf off the New Root 1.I'm
probably going to add Lapins and Stella @400 hours to keep them company.

Paul

Paul, good point with the chill hours.  Here in Colorado I look for cultivars with very high chill hours so that they don't bloom to early, I did not take the climate there into consideration. 

Thank you.

Brian, I have relatives in the San Joaquin Valley area growing cherries trees, and they get a good size crop.  I think in Fresno you should get enough cold days to meet the cold requirement.  This year, however, is unusually warm.

I tried Bing years ago and experienced failure. I am on the border of 9B/10A and at most we get 300 chill hours and average about 200. I am going to try the Royals, anyone experience success with them at 200 chill hours?

Fresno normally gets enough chilling for Bing. But there is a long term trend towards lower chilling in the central valleys of CA. The primary cherry production area in CA is on the eastern valley side near Stockton. That's a bit higher chilling area than Fresno. Good tasting pollinators for me have been Lapins, Van, Selah, and Skeena. Selah being my favorite for it's large size and firm texture. Rainier is a good companion but has been soft and mediocre flavor here.

Wasn't the Bing cherry developed in the Fruitvale region of Oakland? I'll bet chill hours are similar.

This was response from seller......
Hi the cherry will do well on its own,The cherry you have was done from a cutting , Rooted in its secoind season

Who is the seller?  Is it a nursery or a private person from eBay or simular.

Plant1onme. He is on eBay. Can you check if he's legit

Personally, I have never bought anything live off of eBay, I don't trust any of them.  After reading some of the sellers adds, I did not get a warm and fuzzy feeling, some of the plants I looked at are being shipped from overseas, for us a no no.  Next, the (Bartlett) pear it's being sold as a true name dormant "seedling".  We all know that a seedling will NEVER be true to name, that is why named cultivars are grafted to rootstock, it's the only way to get a clone (exact copy) of the parent or mother tree. 

I hope I'm wrong, but I would not buy from that seller. 

Thank you for looking out. I am very new to fruit trees and there requirements. And my family and i LOVE cherries lol

brian i think you should get a grafted plant, not one rooted from a cutting.

Thank you i will discard it

Brian, I would put it in a pot to play with.   Who knows could be fun to see what it really is and does. 

Give me a few and I will send some links for reputable nurseries to look at.

Scott

brian dont discard it now that you have it...
just know that it will take longer to fruit then a grafted one would.
after that you will have to try and keep it short...

When you get a grafted cherry, you can look for one that is grafted with more than one variety.  Then you don't need to plant another tree for pollination.

I would recommend Stella & Lapins (Lapins is sometimes sold as "self fertile bing"). Both are lower on the chill side 400/500 hours and you won't have to worry about one not flowering one year and not pollinating the other, they are both self fertile sweet cherries. 

Here in San Jose fruiting of Bing is weather dependent, some winters cool enough, some not. Van seems to always fruit well from people I know. The more San Jose gets paved over the more of a heat sink it is, and cherries that used to fruit here reliably and now sporadic. The same may go for Fresno. Get a Stella/Lapins and you won't have to worry about the winter being cool enough. The Royal ones are for real low chill places like So Cal. If you do go with higher chill ones like Bing make sure to plant in coldest spot possible (away from walls, southern exposure, any protected area will reduce chill)

You might want to plant the cherry on a mound/berm/raised bed, especially if you have clay soil like we do in Bay Area. This helps prevent rot.

UC also recommends pruning cherries/apricots in dry season (summer) to prevent disease. Prune for size control unless you want to climb 20 ft trees for fruit.

In a month or so you will be able to buy dormant fruit trees at the big box stores and local nurseries. I like Dave Wilson trees, the usually have the rootstock tag on as well (colt a lot of the time).