Cost of Establishing and Producing Sweet Cherries in Central Washington in 2003 - EB1957
EB1957-Available for download in PDF format 
Herbert Hinman and Jack Watson*
Sweet cherries are one of Washington State's major agricultural commodities. In 2001, sweet cherries ranked ninth in overall value of agricultural commodities produced in the state with a gross value of slightly over $144 million. From 1992 to 1997, bearing sweet cherry acreage in the state increased from 14,000 acres to 18,000 acres. By 2001, the bearing sweet cherry acreage had increased to 22,000 acres (Washington Agricultural Statistics, 2002). The sweet cherry orchard acreage within the state is located almost entirely in the arid central region east of the Cascade Mountains. Central Washington counties of Yakima, Benton, Franklin, Okanogan, Chelan, Douglas, and Grant account for 95% of the acreage. According to the 1997 Census of Agriculture, 27 percent of the state’s acreage was in Yakima County with 16.4, 15.3 and 14.2 percent being located in Chelan, Grant and Benton counties, respectively.
Primary cherry producing counties in Washington State
As a result
of the ever increasing acreage of sweet cherries in Washington State,
there are basically two economic situations facing producers in the
sweet cherry industry when it comes to evaluating the profitability
of sweet cherries. The first situation is that of established mature
sweet cherry orchards. The second situation is that of establishing
new sweet cherry orchards. In this latter situation, many new orchards
are (or have been) established using a self-pollinating variety of
sweet cherry on either Mazzard or Giesla 6 rootstock. Giesla 6 is
a more recently developed 
rootstock and produces a tree that is approximately
25% smaller than that produced on the Mazzard rootstock. Trees on
Giesla 6 rootstock are capable of getting into full production
about
a year before trees on Mazzard rootstock (5 versus 6 years).
The primary value in a report of this kind is to identify the practices typical of a modern and well-managed sweet cherry orchard. While this publication does not represent the average grower and is not intended to be a guide to production practices, it does indicate current trends. As such, it should be helpful in estimating the physical and financial requirements of comparable plantings.
*Extension Economist; Benton-Franklin County Area Extension Agent, Cooperative Extension, Washington State University.
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