Lapins Cherry

A self-fertile sweet cherry producing large, dark red fruits with excellent flavor and crack resistance, making it ideal for home gardens. Lapins ripens about two weeks after Bing and is one of the most reliable self-pollinating cherry varieties. The tree is vigorous and productive, performing well on dwarfing rootstocks for smaller spaces.

Lapins cherries do not come true from seed and must be propagated by grafting. To grow rootstock from pits, clean seeds from fully ripe fruit and cold-stratify in damp peat moss at 34-40°F for 90-150 days. Plant stratified seeds one inch deep in spring in well-drained seed-starting mix. Graft Lapins scion wood onto one-year-old seedling rootstock or onto Gisela 5 or 6 clonal rootstocks for size control using whip-and-tongue grafting in late winter.

Lapins cherry trees perform best in full sun with well-drained, deep loamy soil at pH 6.0-7.0. Plant bare-root trees in late winter, spacing standard trees 20-25 feet apart or 10-14 feet on semi-dwarfing rootstocks like Gisela 6. As a self-fertile variety, Lapins does not require a pollinizer, though cross-pollination with another sweet cherry can increase yields.

Provide consistent deep watering weekly during the growing season, tapering off as fruit colors to reduce cracking. Lapins needs 700-800 chill hours and is slightly more crack-resistant than Bing. Train to an open-center form with 3-4 well-spaced scaffold branches. Prune in late winter to remove crossing branches and maintain an open canopy for light penetration.

Apply a balanced fertilizer in early spring before bud break. Net trees before fruit begins coloring to protect from birds. Lapins benefits from thinning heavy fruit clusters to improve size and reduce biennial bearing. Monitor for brown rot during humid weather and apply preventive fungicides at bloom.

Chives and garlic planted nearby help deter aphids with their pungent aroma. Low-growing clovers or vetch between rows fix nitrogen and provide ground cover. Tansy and yarrow attract beneficial parasitic wasps that prey on cherry pests. Avoid proximity to walnuts and butternuts, which exude juglone. Borage planted nearby attracts pollinators during bloom, though Lapins is self-fertile.

Lapins prefers deep, well-drained sandy loam soil with pH 6.0-7.0. Avoid heavy clay soils that retain water around roots. Fertilize in early spring with a balanced 10-10-10 formula, about one pound per inch of trunk diameter. Supplement with calcium to strengthen fruit cell walls and reduce cracking. Apply boron at bloom if deficiency is suspected. Maintain a 3-4 inch mulch ring of wood chips around the tree, keeping mulch away from the trunk.

Ideal Temperature

Hardiness Zone Compatibility

Lapins cherries ripen in mid-July, about two weeks after Bing. Fruit turns deep dark red to near-black when fully ripe and should be firm with a sweet flavor. Pick with stems attached by gently lifting and twisting. Harvest in morning when temperatures are cool for best keeping quality. A mature dwarf tree yields 30-50 pounds, while standard trees produce 80-120 pounds. Refrigerate immediately after picking.

Storage & Preservation

Lapins cherries keep 10-14 days refrigerated at 32-34°F due to their crack-resistant, firm flesh. Their excellent firmness makes them ideal for freezing whole or pitted. They can be dried, canned in light syrup, or made into preserves and cherry butter. Lapins is well-suited for making cherry liqueur, kirsch, and cherry juice concentrate due to its high sugar content and intense color.

Troubleshooting Common Problems

While more crack-resistant than Bing, Lapins can still split in prolonged rain during ripening. The vigorous growth habit requires regular pruning to prevent overcrowding in the canopy. Bird damage remains a significant threat without netting. Young trees may produce excessive vegetative growth at the expense of fruit if over-fertilized with nitrogen. Gummosis on the trunk often indicates stress from physical damage or disease.

Growing Tips

1. Choose your planting site with great care — Lapins demands well-drained soil in full sun. It is among the most intolerant of all fruit trees to waterlogged roots, which leads rapidly to root rot, crown rot, and death. A gently sloping, south-facing position is ideal, providing both maximum sun and natural cold-air drainage away from the blossom in spring. Never plant in a frost hollow or on heavy, poorly drained clay without first installing land drains.
2. Lapins is genuinely self-fertile, so a single tree will produce a full crop without any pollination partner — but it can also serve as a universal pollinator for most other mid- to late-season sweet cherry varieties, making it an excellent anchor choice if you intend to plant two or more cherry trees and want to cover pollination requirements for other less self-reliant varieties in your collection.
3. Select your rootstock to match your space and intended management. Gisela 5 keeps Lapins to a very manageable 3–4 metres, ideal for home gardens, netting, and safe ladder-free or low-ladder harvesting. Colt produces a tree of 4.5–6 metres — suitable for larger spaces and slightly higher yields. Avoid planting Lapins on its own roots or on vigorous standard rootstocks unless you have extensive space and equipment, as the resulting trees can reach 8–15 metres, making netting and harvest difficult.
4. Prune Lapins only during late summer — July or August immediately after harvest — while the weather is warm and dry and wounds can heal rapidly. Sweet cherries are uniquely susceptible to silver leaf disease (Chondrostereum purpureum) and bacterial canker (Pseudomonas syringae), both of which enter through pruning cuts and are far more infectious during the cool, wet conditions of autumn and winter. This is one of the most important management rules for growing sweet cherries successfully and is frequently the cause of tree decline in gardens where it is ignored.
5. Deploy bird netting over the entire canopy at least two weeks before the cherries begin to show colour — in practice this means having the netting in place from mid-June in most UK and northern European locations. Lapins ripens late, which means it may encounter determined birds that have already learned where the fruit is from watching earlier varieties ripen. Fine-mesh netting of 15–20 mm fixed at the base is the only reliably effective protection; reflective devices, fake owls, and noise deterrents provide only days of effect before birds habituate to them.
6. Fan training Lapins against a south- or southwest-facing wall or solid fence is one of the best approaches for smaller gardens. The reflected warmth from the wall advances ripening by 1–2 weeks and can coax good crops in slightly marginal climates. The constrained form makes annual pruning easier to execute precisely, makes netting the flat canopy straightforward, and creates one of the most visually striking features in a kitchen garden during spring blossom. Wall-trained trees require horizontal training wires at 30–40 cm intervals from 30 cm above ground to 2 metres.
7. Maintain perfectly even, consistent soil moisture throughout the fruit development and ripening period — from fruitlet formation through to harvest. Lapins is susceptible to fruit splitting if there is a sudden uptake of water by the skin after a dry period, whether caused by heavy rain or inconsistent irrigation. Install drip irrigation or soaker hoses at the root zone to deliver water steadily at a controlled rate. Avoid all overhead irrigation once fruit is colouring. If heavy rain is forecast and your soil is already moist, do not irrigate beforehand, and consider temporary drainage improvements if your site is prone to pooling.
8. Feed Lapins with a potassium-rich fertiliser — such as sulphate of potash — applied around the drip line in late summer after harvest to support fruit bud formation for the following season and to harden the wood before winter. In early spring at bud break, apply a balanced granular fertiliser to support flowering and early growth. Avoid high-nitrogen feeds in mid- to late summer as they promote soft, sappy late-season growth that is more susceptible to winter damage and fungal disease.
9. Inspect the bark and branch junctions regularly for amber or reddish-brown gum exuding from sunken, discoloured areas — the classic sign of bacterial canker. Act immediately and cut back affected wood to clean, healthy tissue at least 15 cm below any visible staining in the wood, disposing of removed material away from the garden. Sterilise cutting tools between cuts with a dilute bleach solution or methylated spirits. Apply a grafting wax or proprietary wound sealant to all large cuts to slow reinfection. Trees that develop extensive canker can be treated successfully if caught early, but those with girdling lesions around the trunk are unlikely to recover.
10. For container growing, use the largest pot practical — minimum 60 litres — filled with a loam-based compost such as John Innes No. 3 mixed with 20–25% perlite or coarse grit for drainage. Container-grown Lapins on Gisela 5 or Pixie rootstock can thrive on a sunny patio and produce worthwhile crops, but requires watering once or twice daily during hot summer weather and feeding with a liquid balanced fertiliser every 2 weeks during the growing season. Repot every 2–3 years, root-pruning to maintain vigour and prevent the tree becoming pot-bound.