Planting a cherry tree in your yard is something that will excite you quite a bit. Not only are these trees very beautiful, but they’re also going to provide you with delicious cherries eventually.
You might have planted cherry trees in your yard specifically because you wish to harvest cherries from them. This is why it can be annoying when you discover that your cherry trees don’t appear to be flowering.
Is there something special that you need to do to get your cherry trees to produce fruit? Shouldn’t your cherry trees be fruiting by now if you’ve been caring for the trees the right way?
Keep reading to get information about why a cherry tree might have issues with flowering. It should help you to determine what you need to do to get the results that you’re hoping for.
1 – Your Cherry Tree Might Not Be Mature Yet

You might just need to exercise some patience and wait for your cherry tree to mature. Cherry trees need to reach a certain age before they’re going to be able to start bearing fruit.
The age that the cherry tree needs to be will differ depending on if you’re dealing with sour cherry trees or sweet cherry trees. Sweet cherry trees will start fruiting somewhere between four and seven years old while sour cherry trees will fruit once they are between three and five years old.
Depending on how healthy the tree is, your cherry tree might start producing fruit during the earlier estimations that were given. There are all sorts of different things that can factor into how successful you will be growing cherry trees, but it’s crucial to just do your best to care for them when you want them to start fruiting.
You might already know this and your cherry trees could be the right age to start fruiting. In this situation, is there a reason why the cherry trees aren’t flowering as normal?
Read on to look into some potential factors that could be impacting your cherry trees. It should help you to try to figure out what could be preventing your cherry trees from flowering as normal.
2 – Weather and Climate Issues

The most common reason why cherry trees won’t flower properly has to do with the weather. Both climate and weather will play a major role in how well your cherry trees are going to do.
If you’ve planted cherry trees in a climate that isn’t suitable for them, then you’re likely not going to get great results. It can also sometimes be the case that you’ll have a strange year with the weather, and this could make it so that your cherry trees don’t flower as they normally would.
Frost is going to be the biggest concern that will keep your cherry tree from fruiting. If you had a cold snap at an unexpected time, then the frost could have damaged the cherry tree somewhat.
When the temperatures dip below 29 degrees Fahrenheit, it’s going to be very dangerous for your cherry trees. Temperatures such as this can keep fruit from forming, and this doesn’t even have to happen while the tree is in full bloom to have a negative impact.
Sometimes you might see that the flowers will look normal, but that the tree is still not producing fruit. Other times, you might have issues with both flowering and fruiting.
This is often going to be because the frost has caused damage even if you aren’t able to see it too well. If you are able to spot frost damage, then it’s normally going to present itself in the center of your cherry tree blossoms as a dark brown or black spot.
To keep this from happening, you can cover the cherry trees whenever you know that it’s supposed to get cold at night. You can protect the cherry trees from frost damage by planning ahead, and this should keep the trees safe enough so that they’ll flower and fruit when they’re supposed to.
It’s also going to be a wise idea to plant your cherry trees in a safe spot in your yard. Try to plant them in a location that isn’t as likely to be exposed to significant frost issues.
Other Ways to Help Your Cherry Trees Flower and Fruit

You know that flowering and fruiting issues can be caused by frost damage. It’s also true that not caring for your cherry tree properly could be causing you to get less than stellar results.
It’s going to be very important to ensure that you’re watering your cherry tree right when you’re trying to get it to flower. If you aren’t giving your cherry tree enough water, then it isn’t going to be able to maintain its fruiting capability.
Ideally, you should be watering the cherry trees on a consistent schedule. However, you’re going to need to adjust things based on how much it has rained and whether you’re in a period of drought or not.
Cherry trees can die when they don’t get enough water, but they can die when they get watered too much as well. This means that you can’t go overboard with watering or else you’ll risk the health of the tree.
You can make things safer by ensuring that your cherry tree is planted in well-draining soil. This ensures that the cherry tree can dry out properly between watering sessions.
Cherry trees are known to do poorly in heavy clay dirt, and this means that you might need to prepare the soil specifically to keep the tree healthy. It’s worth going to the extra effort when you want your cherry trees to thrive.

Also, you can give your cherry tree fertilizer to help it along. As with most things, you’ll need to do so in moderation. Fertilizing too much can actually cause the foliage to grow more than normal at the expense of the fruit.
Keeping an eye on weeds can help your cherry tree out as well. Sometimes cherry trees won’t flower or fruit as much when they’re competing with weeds too much.
Weeding regularly and using mulch can keep things from getting too bad. Pruning is also wise when you’re trying to encourage good fruit growth.
If you see too much upright growth, then it could either cause fruiting to occur later or keep your cherry tree from fruiting as much as normal. Be sure to prune the cherry tree as necessary so that it will keep fruiting for you as you want it to.
Final Thoughts
For the most part, cherry trees aren’t going to have significant issues with flowering or fruiting if you take care of them right. It’s important to protect the cherry trees from frost damage since that is the most likely thing that will impact flowering and fruiting capabilities.
It’s also true that not caring for the tree well enough can prevent it from flowering or fruiting as it should. You might not be watering the cherry tree enough or you could be watering it too much.
So long as your cherry tree is getting about an inch of rain every ten days, you won’t have to water it if the tree is established. You just have to keep an eye on the weather to see how things are going in your area.
You know what you need to know about caring for cherry trees now. It should be a lot simpler to make good choices so that you can enjoy flowering and fruiting cherry trees on your property.

Growing up with a mom who filled her home (inside and out) with all sorts of plants, Lisa got her start in gardening at a young age. Living now on her own with a home and yard full of plants (including an indoor greenhouse), she shares all the gardening tips she’s gained over the years.