Black Tartarian Sweet Cherry
Pollination & Compatibility Guide
Black Tartarian cherry pollination guide: S-genotype (S1S2, Group I), compatible partners (Bing, Rainier, Lapins), bloom overlap, and heritage care.
Black Tartarian is Self-Incompatible (Needs 1 Partner)
Group I — mutually sterile with Knight's Early Black, Early Rivers, Bedford Prolific and Summit. Sold under several older names (Ronald's Large Black Heart, Circassian) — check nursery synonyms before assuming you have two cultivars. Bing and Rainier are both clean full-compatibility partners of overlapping bloom. Black Tartarian needs at least one compatible pollinizer from bloom group 1–3 to set a reliable crop.
- S-Genotype / Genetics
- S1S2 (Group I)
- Required Companions
- 1 Compatible Partner
- Bloom Group
- Group 2 (Early-Spring)
- Harvest Timing
- Early Season
Flowering Period & Overlap Window
Sweet and sour cherry flowering periods are classified into numbered bloom groups (1 through 5). Cross-pollination requires overlapping bloom timing between genetically compatible cultivars.
Any compatible cherry cultivar flowering within Group 1 to 3 provides matching blossom overlap.
Compatible Pollination Partners (13)
| Cultivar | Bloom Group | Overlap Type | Harvest | Primary Uses | Interactive Test |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group 2 | Full Overlap | Early | Fresh Eating | Test Cross | |
| Group 2 | Full Overlap | Early | Fresh Eating | Test Cross | |
| Group 3 | Full Overlap | Mid-Late | Fresh Eating, Canning | Test Cross | |
| Group 3 | Full Overlap | Mid | Canning, Fresh Eating | Test Cross | |
| Group 3 | Full Overlap | Mid | Fresh Eating | Test Cross | |
| Group 3 | Full Overlap | Mid | Fresh Eating | Test Cross | |
| Group 3 | Adjacent Overlap | Mid | Fresh Eating, Dessert | Test Cross | |
| Group 3 | Adjacent Overlap | Mid | Fresh Eating | Test Cross | |
SelahGuideUniversal Donor | Group 3 | Full Overlap | Mid | Fresh Eating | Test Cross |
StellaGuideUniversal Donor | Group 3 | Full Overlap | Mid | Fresh Eating, All-Purpose | Test Cross |
SunburstGuideUniversal Donor | Group 3 | Full Overlap | Mid | Fresh Eating | Test Cross |
| Group 3 | Full Overlap | Mid | Fresh Eating | Test Cross | |
| Group 3 | Adjacent Overlap | Mid | Fresh Eating, Canning | Test Cross |
Incompatible Varieties & Exclusions (3)
These cherry varieties overlap in flowering time with Black Tartarian but cannot fertilise it due to shared S-allele genetic incompatibility groups.
Knight's Early Black shares both S-alleles with Black Tartarian — they are mutually sterile, whatever their bloom overlap suggests.
Vibrant's S-genotype is not recorded. For this crop compatibility is computed from S-alleles, so it cannot be offered as a partner without one.
Vindskörsbär (Victor)'s S-genotype is not recorded. For this crop compatibility is computed from S-alleles, so it cannot be offered as a partner without one.
Black Tartarian Heritage Pollinizer & Orchard Care
Black Tartarian is a historic heritage sweet cherry introduced from the Caucasus and Circassia prior to 1794. Long celebrated for its tender, soft, intensely sweet, purplish-black flesh and rich heirloom dessert flavour, Black Tartarian remains an iconic garden tree and an invaluable commercial workhorse pollinizer across diverse temperate fruit growing regions worldwide.
Genetically, Black Tartarian belongs to Incompatibility Group I with the S1S2 genotype. It is self-sterile and mutually incompatible with other Group I cultivars including Knight's Early Black, Early Rivers, and Bedford Prolific. However, it produces heavy volumes of viable pollen that readily fertilise Group III (Bing, S3S4), Group IX (Rainier, S1S4), and Group XIII (Schmidt, S2S4).
Blossoming in early-to-mid spring (Bloom Group 2), Black Tartarian overlaps with both early and mid-season sweet cherries, making it one of the most effective companion trees for multi-variety orchards seeking robust pollination coverage, heavy bee foraging activity, and reliable annual fruit set across diverse orchard layouts.
Key Orchard Considerations for Black Tartarian
Black Tartarian flowers with extreme profusion, producing abundant, high-viability pollen that draws heavy bee activity across the entire early-to-mid bloom period.
The tender, juicy flesh bruises easily during mechanical sorting and long-distance transport. Ideal for pick-your-own, local farm stands, and home culinary use.
Trees are remarkably vigorous, healthy, and long-lived on Mazzard rootstocks, forming expansive, spreading canopies that require regular thinning to maintain lower spur light.
Take Black Tartarian from Planning to Planting
Use Kropigo's free browser tools to model your block density, tree counts, and pollinizer rows, then maintain permanent orchard records row by row.
Pollination Checker
Check Black Tartarian against supported cultivars with compatible flowering and pollination data.
Commercial Block Planner
Calculate high-density tree spacing, row geometry, and establishment costs.
Block Record Keeping
Track pruning, chemical thinning, and harvest tallies block by block from the orchard.