StardustTM cherry trees

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• Picking season: Early
• Self-fertility: Self-fertile
• Universal pollinator: Yes

Stardust is a new mid-season white cherry which is also fully self-fertile.

Stardust cherry trees for sale

Stardust is a new white-fleshed cherry which is also self-fertile. White-fleshed or "blush" cherries are rarely available in the shops because they bruise more easily than the dark-fleshed varieties.

Stardust cherries are a medium to large size, orange-flushed, with a firm creamy-white flesh and an excellent flavour.

Stardust is a mid / late-season variety so the cherries are usually ripe in July in the UK, arriving about a week after Bing, Regina, and Skeena. They tend to ripen over the course of several days, rather than all at once. This is an ideal quality for the gardener, because it means ripe cherries are available to be eaten fresh from the tree over an extended period.

Overall Stardust makes a great addition to the home orchard.

How to grow

Stardust flowers a bit later that most cherries, and is a good pollinator of other late-flowering cherries. It has some resistance to fruit-cracking, although as with all dessert cherries, heavy rainfall at harvest time can induce splitting.

To get the best fruit size it may be necessary to thin the fruitlets just after the blossom finishes.

Advice on fruit tree pollination.

History

Stardust was developed at the famous Summerland research station in British Columbia, and released in 2002. It is distantly related to Stella, which was the first self-fertile cherry.

Cherry enthusiasts often prefer white-fleshed cherries for their rich flavour, but almost all cherries released in the last century have been dark-fleshed varieties. The traditional white-fleshed cherry varieties are not self-fertile, and often have complicated pollination requirements, making them unsuitable for gardens and small orchards where space is limited. Stardust is however a self-fertile white cherry, that can be planted without the need for another pollenizer tree.

Stardust characteristics