Fruit Trees & Citrus
Cherry
The highest chill requirement of the stone fruits — a genuinely cold-climate tree.
Prunus avium · Fruit Trees & Citrus · Perennial
When to plant Cherry in Australia
Sourced timing by broad climate zone. Zones with no sourced timing for an action are left out rather than estimated.
- Plant out seedlings
- Cool, Temperate — Jun, Jul, Aug
Australian planting guide by climate zone
Sourced guidance by broad climate zone, shown as fixed months, timing relative to sowing or planting, or written growing advice. Your GrowCal calendar applies your regional growing profile, so its dates may sit earlier or later than the months below.
Why
Cherries need more winter chill than the subtropics can supply. Even the lowest-chill cherry varieties on the Australian nursery chill chart require several hundred hours below 7C, and every Australian cherry district is cool temperate or high altitude. There is no low-chill cherry pathway for subtropical gardens.
Why
Tropical Australia accumulates essentially no winter chill, and cherries need hundreds of chill hours to break dormancy and set fruit. Cherries are not a home crop in the tropics.
| Action | Cool | Temperate | Subtropical | Tropical | Arid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plant out | Jun, Jul, AugDetailsWinter is the best time to plant bare-rooted fruit trees; the bare-root season lasts from June to August. | Jun, Jul, AugDetailsWinter is the best time to plant bare-rooted fruit trees; the bare-root season lasts from June to August. | Not recommended in this climate | Not recommended in this climate | Climate guidanceDetailsCherries carry the highest chill requirement of the stone fruit and every Australian cherry district is cool temperate or high altitude. In low-elevation arid inland gardens the winter chill is usually too short for reliable cropping, so treat a cherry as a long-odds planting. |
| Feed | No sourced timing currently shown | No sourced timing currently shown | Not recommended in this climate | Not recommended in this climate | No sourced timing currently shown |
| Prune | No sourced timing currently shown | No sourced timing currently shown | Not recommended in this climate | Not recommended in this climate | No sourced timing currently shown |
| Pest check | No sourced timing currently shown | No sourced timing currently shown | Not recommended in this climate | Not recommended in this climate | No sourced timing currently shown |
| Harvest | No sourced timing currently shown | No sourced timing currently shown | Not recommended in this climate | Not recommended in this climate | No sourced timing currently shown |
Only sourced growing and timing guidance is shown.
Zone notes
- Arid: Cherries carry the highest chill requirement of the stone fruit and every Australian cherry district is cool temperate or high altitude. In low-elevation arid inland gardens the winter chill is usually too short for reliable cropping, so treat a cherry as a long-odds planting.
About this data
This schedule is part of GrowCal's preview horticultural dataset — useful as general guidance, and still being validated. Conditions vary with your soil, aspect, frost and variety. Read more on the data & methodology page, or send us a correction.
Related planting guides
Other plants in the GrowCal dataset, mostly from the same category.
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