Santina Sweet Cherry

Santina is a heavy producer of large, delicious, very firm dark red sweet cherries. They ripen relatively early in the sweet cherry season, and are cold hardy to zone 5.

They have good resistance to cracking – which is a problem for some sweet cherries as they approach peak ripeness, and abundant rainfall can cause the skin to split, which opens them to infection.

Pollination: Self-fertile, meaning you only need one, but may produce better with another sweet cherry nearby.

Parentage: Stella (a premier self-fertile sweet cherry) x Summit (a cross of Van x Sam). Bred at the Summerland research station, released in 1997.

Rootstock: Krymsk 6.

References:

Sweet Cherry Variety Trials on Flathead Lake.

Image 1: Arbor Day Foundation.

Image 2: Vivai Piante Battistini.