Morello Cherry

The Sour Cherry or Morello Cherry, (Prunus cerasus) is a class of Prunus in the subgenus Cerasus (cherries), native to much of Europe and southwest Asia. It is closely related to the Wild Cherry (P. avium), also known as sweet cherry, but has a fruit which is more acidic, and so is useful mainly for culinary purposes.
The tree is smaller than the Wild Cherry, increasing up to 4-10 m tall, and has twiggy branches, whilst the crimson to black fruit is borne on shorter stalks.
Sour Cherries require comparable cultivation conditions to pears, that is, they prefer a rich, well-drained moist soil, although they demand more nitrogen and water than sweet cherries. Trees will do badly if waterlogged, but have larger tolerance of poor drainage than sweet varieties. As with sweet cherries, Morellos are usually cultivated by budding onto strong growing rootstocks, which produce trees too large for most gardens, although newer dwarfing rootstocks such as Colt and Gisella are now available. During spring, flowers should be sheltered, and trees weeded, mulched and sprayed with seaweed solution. This is also the time when any required pruning should be carried out (note that cherries should not be pruned during the dormant winter months). Morello cherry trees fruit on younger wood than sweet varieties, and thus can be pruned harder. They are usually grown as standards, but can be fan trained, cropping well even on cold walls, or grown as low bushes.