Growing peaches, plums & cherries

What the stone fruits have in common

Peaches, plums, cherries, apricots, and nectarines all belong to the genus Prunus and share a fruit built around one large stone, or pit. They also share habits in the garden: they want full sun to fruit well, they won't put up with soil where water stands after rain, and they bloom early in spring — which puts their flowers at real risk from late frosts.

Give a stone fruit tree at least six hours of direct sun a day — full sun is better — and steer clear of low frost pockets and the wet ground near downspouts. Space trees roughly 12 to 20 feet apart, since a stone fruit's spread is often as wide as it is tall.

Two planting details matter especially for this group. Avoid the warm south side of a building, where reflected winter sun can coax the tree out of dormancy early and leave an already frost-prone bloom even more exposed. And because stone fruits hate standing water, pick a site that drains freely; if your only spot holds water, plant on a raised mound or berm to keep the crown and roots up out of the wet.

Chill hours and early bloom

Every stone fruit variety has a chilling requirement: a number of winter hours, generally counted between 32°F and 45°F, that must pass before the tree can wake up and bloom in spring. Matching a variety's chill requirement to your local winter is one of the most important calls you'll make — so check it before you buy.

Because stone fruits bloom early — apricots, peaches, and nectarines especially — their flowers are among the first things a late frost can wipe out. In cold-winter regions that makes hardiness and bloom timing decisive: gardeners in the far North may need varieties bred for Zone 3 or 4, and will find peaches the most limited group, with only a handful of hardy cultivars to choose from. Where spring frosts are common, a slightly later-blooming variety or a site with good cold-air drainage buys you valuable insurance.

Keep chill and cold-hardiness separate in your mind, because they answer different questions. Chill hours tell you whether a variety will break dormancy and bloom properly in your climate; hardiness tells you whether the tree and its buds will survive your coldest winter nights. A peach can be hardy enough to live in your yard yet still crop poorly if your winters don't deliver its chill — and a low-chill variety planted where winters are cold may meet its chill early, bloom during a warm spell, and lose the flowers to the next frost. Match a variety to both.

Self-fertility: which trees need a partner

This is where the three fruits part ways the most, and getting it wrong means flowers but no fruit. Some stone fruits are self-fruitful and crop on their own; others are self-unfruitful and need a second, compatible variety blooming at the same time.

• Peaches and nectarines: most are self-fruitful, so a single tree can set a full crop on its own.
• Apricots: most standard apricots are self-fruitful and crop alone, though a nearby partner can improve set — the exceptions are a few cold-hardy varieties such as Moongold and Sungold, which do need a pollinizer.
• Tart (sour) cherries: self-compatible; one tree will fruit, though a second variety nearby can bump up the crop.
• European plums (e.g. prune types): many are self-compatible and can fruit alone, but crop more reliably with a partner.
• Sweet cherries: most are self-unfruitful and need a compatible pollinizer, though self-fertile varieties such as Stella, Lapins, Black Gold, and Sweetheart can fruit alone and pollinate others.
• Japanese/hybrid plums and hybrid apricots (apriums/pluots): generally self-incompatible, requiring at least two different varieties.

Two things to watch when pairing plums: European and Japanese plums bloom at different times and generally won't pollinate each other, so match a plum with a partner of the same type. And keep pollen partners close — extension guidance suggests compatible varieties within about 50 to 100 feet, because bees do the carrying and don't range far around a tree. Bees also work best above about 65°F, so cold, wet, or windy weather during bloom can quietly cut your fruit set even when the pairing is right.

The takeaway: plan pollination before you buy, not after you watch a tree flower and set nothing. If you have room for only one tree, lean toward a self-fruitful type — a peach, a standard apricot, a tart cherry, or a self-fertile sweet cherry like Stella or Lapins — so a lone tree can still crop. And if your heart is set on a sweet cherry or a Japanese plum, budget for two compatible varieties from the start.

Thinning the crop

Stone fruits — peaches and Japanese plums especially — routinely set far more fruit than a branch can size or hold up. Peaches shed some of that load naturally in a late-spring "June drop," but it's rarely enough on its own, so you'll need to hand-thin to finish the job.

For peaches, thin the young fruit so about 4 to 6 inches of space sits between the ones you keep; some growers stretch that to 6 to 8 inches for larger fruit. Pulling fruit early feels wasteful, but it gives you bigger, better fruit, keeps limbs from snapping under the load, and heads off the boom-and-bust cycle where a tree wears itself out in a heavy year and barely fruits the next. Cherries are generally left unthinned, and plums are thinned less aggressively than peaches.

Thin as soon as you can tell which fruitlets are strongest — after the natural drop has run its course, but while the fruit is still small. Going early lets the tree pour its energy into the fruit you keep rather than into fruit it would only shed later, and it makes the biggest difference to final size. A branch carrying a solid wall of touching peaches gives you many small, disease-prone fruit and may break; the same branch thinned to well-spaced singles gives you fewer but far larger, cleaner ones.

Harvest timing across the three

Stone fruits don't get sweeter after picking — their sugar is set on the tree — so the aim is to leave them on the branch as long as you can, while still harvesting firm enough to dodge disease and bruising. Picking a touch firm and letting the fruit finish softening indoors is a fair compromise, and picking firm specifically helps hold back brown rot, the most common storage headache.

• Peaches and nectarines: ripe fruit shows full ground color (green fading to yellow or cream under the blush) and gives to gentle thumb pressure; pick while still firm and let it finish softening off the tree to cut down brown rot.
• Plums: color turns to the variety's mature purple, red, or gold and the flesh gives to gentle pressure; European (prune) plums can hang and sweeten, while Japanese types are usually picked slightly firm.
• Sweet and tart cherries: cherries won't ripen any further once picked, so taste-test and harvest only when fully colored and sweet; pick with the stems on to keep them sound.

Expect fruit two to five years after planting a young one- or two-year-old tree, with cherries and plums often bearing earliest. The three ripen in a rough order through summer — cherries first, then peaches and plums — so a small mix of stone fruit can spread fresh picking across many weeks.

Because ripe stone fruit doesn't hold long on the tree, plan to pick over each tree several times as fruit comes ready, rather than stripping it all at once. A single peach or plum can go from firm to overripe in a matter of days once it starts to soften, and fruit left to fall draws pests and spreads brown rot to the fruit still hanging. Picking often — and clearing any dropped or rotting fruit from under the tree — is the simplest thing you can do to keep a crop clean.

A note on storage

Stone fruit is perishable and keeps best cold. Cherries hold only a few days even refrigerated, while plums can keep several weeks if you get them into the fridge promptly, near 32°F to 40°F. Handle the fruit gently, cool it quickly after picking, and eat the softest first. Fruit picked a little firm can sit at room temperature for a day or two to finish softening, then move to the fridge to buy a few more days once it's ripe.

Choose for your chill and your frost risk, pair up any variety that needs a partner, thin honestly, and pick at the right firmness — do those four things and peaches, plums, and cherries will reward a home garden generously.