Tart Cherry in Zone 8a & 8b
Prunus cerasus
When to plant tart cherry in zone 8b
Zones 8a and 8b 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 11–Mar 18 |
| Estimated harvest | Mar 10 '30–Mar 17 '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 8's season
Zone 8b's frost-free window runs about 230 days, from March 25 to November 10. 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 8b 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 8b: when to start seeds indoors, when to direct-sow, and when to expect a harvest.
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