What Is the Life Cycle of a Cherry Tree?
Cherry trees start as seeds, which are the pits found in cherries. These seeds are planted, and they grow into nursery trees that turn into young trees and then bear fruit.The cherry fruit then matures and falls to the ground, bearing seeds. The cycle begins again with the seed ready to be planted.
The cherry seedlings must go through a process of stratification, a cooling period that enables seeds to germinate. After this, the cherry seedlings can be planted in pots or the ground. Depending on environmental conditions, cherry seedlings take one to three weeks to sprout. These then grow into nursery cherry trees that attain a height of 4 to 6 feet within the first year. These nursery cherry trees grow into young cherry trees that can become quite large. Young cherry trees grow at an average of 6 to 18 inches.
Cherry trees typically blossom in the spring, however not all trees will produce cherry blossoms in the first few years. Young cherry trees generally start to bear fruit once they have reached 3 to 5 years of age. Ripened cherries fall from the tree, with the fruit decaying on the ground and the seedling going through a process of stratification. Thus, the cycle begins again.
