Tart Cherry in Zone 7a & 7b
Prunus cerasus
When to plant tart cherry in zone 7b
Zones 7a and 7b share the same average frost dates in our data, so this page covers both.
Method: Buy as a start: Buy as a nursery start and transplant outside. Tart Cherry is slow or unreliable from seed, so most gardeners skip seed-starting it entirely.
| Start indoors | Not started from seed; buy as a nursery start |
|---|---|
| Direct sow / transplant outside | Mar 27–Apr 3 |
| Estimated harvest | Mar 26 '30–Apr 2 '30 (First real harvest in year 4) |
Spacing: about 50 square feet per plant (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 12-16 ft.
Tart cherry (Prunus cerasus), also called sour or pie cherry, is a separate species from sweet cherry and a distinctly different growing experience: self-fertile, more cold-hardy, and more compact, grown almost entirely for cooking rather than fresh eating since the fruit is tart straight off the tree.
How tart cherry fits zone 7's season
Zone 7b's frost-free window runs about 198 days, from April 10 to October 25. Tart Cherry takes about 3 growing seasons to reach first worthwhile harvest, so what matters here is how many of these seasons it gets, not whether one is long enough.
Tart Cherry is hardy in zones 4-8, so in zone 7b it stays in the ground through winter and comes back rather than being replanted. Allow about 15 ft of spread at maturity.
Good companions
No standout companions recorded yet for Tart Cherry.
Where to buy tart cherry starts
Tart Cherry is almost always bought as a nursery start rather than seeded. Check a local nursery or garden center; we haven't vetted online start/plant suppliers yet.
See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing tart cherry" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Tart Cherry in USDA zone 7b: when to start seeds indoors, when to direct-sow, and when to expect a harvest.
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