Cornelian cherries are the sweet-tart fruit of a particular species of dogwood (Cornus mas) and they’ve been cultivated for thousands of years. They’re a part of the traditional cuisines in eastern Europe, Greece and Turkey, as well as a part of traditional Chinese medicine. These dogwood cherries are only just becoming popular and available in the US because of the rise in interest in backyard permaculture.
Cornelian cherries are mentioned in just about every permaculture text I’ve ever read, but they can be tricky to find locally and they’re most commonly ordered online by permaculture enthusiasts.
When I ran across three 5′ tall bushes at a plant auction, I made a point of bidding. Since no one seemed to know anything about them, very few people bid. I walked away with three plants, each about 5 feet tall, and each was covered in quarts of fruit.
Now the real problem, how do you grow cornelian cherry?
How to Grow Cornelian Cherry
The growth habit of cornelian cherry is somewhere between a bush and a small tree. They grow to somewhere between 15 and 25 feet tall, and large bushes can be 12 feet wide. Since they’re a slow-growing plant, it can take decades for them to reach full size and they have an expected productive lifespan of about 150 years. If you’re planting cornelian cherry, make sure you pick a location that can handle their eventual size, even if you don’t live to see it.
Cornelian cherries aren’t picky about soil type, and though they prefer fertile well-drained soil, they can be grown on just about anything, including dense clay. That’s good news for our heavy clay soil.
The plants are hardy to either zone 4 or 5 depending on the cultivar. The plants flower very early in the spring, even earlier than forsythia. Given that, they may need protection from late frosts in colder areas like ours, we’ll see…
Harvesting Cornelian Cherry
Unripe cornelian cherries are tart and astringent, but the fully ripe fruit tastes like a cross between tart cherries and cranberries. The trick is, the fruit are not fully ripe until they fall from the bush. Even when they’re fully bright red, they’re not ready yet. Truly ripe fruit is soft, and a deep red. The texture is a bit like a mushy plum that’s well past prime. At that stage, the fruit is soft and sweet-tart around a large oval shaped seed.
The fruit are oval shaped, with a large pit that’s firmly attached to the flesh. They’re tricky to pit, and generally, the fruit are boiled in a small bit of water until the fruit falls away from the pit.
Propagating Cornelian Cherry
Since plants can be a bit hard to find, I fully intended to propagate the three varieties I now have on the homestead. I quickly learned that propagation, by cuttings or seed, is a bit tricky.
Growing Cornelian Cherry from Seed
Cornelian cherry seeds need very specific conditions for germination, and I’m not sure I can actually recreate them here in Vermont. Sources vary a bit, but most say that cornelian cherry seeds require somewhere between 90 and 120 days of warm moist stratification (above 68 degrees f). After that, the seeds need an additional 90 to 120 days of cold stratification (below 39 degrees). That’s tough to accomplish, especially with fruit that ripens in early October.
Our growing season here in zone 4 is only 100 days long, and there are maybe 60 to 80 days that stay dependably above 68 degrees. It’s hard to keep it above 68 indoors, and often enough it’ll be below 50 in the morning when I wake up before the wood stove is loaded in the morning. Given these conditions, I’m not sure how to replicate them, indoors or out.
Propagating Cornelian Cherry from Cuttings
Given that seeds are tricky, the next logical choice is hardwood cuttings. Propagating grapes and many other plants is easiest by hardwood cuttings, since moisture levels are less critical than with softwood cuttings. Cornelian cherries apparently don’t do well with hardwood cuttings, and most sources suggest taking greenwood cuttings in July or August.
That said, I ran across one study that had a 60% success rate with some cultivars, though others just wouldn’t root at all from hardwood cuttings. Since I have three varieties, I’ll try taking dormant cuttings late this winter and see how it goes. If that fails, then greenwood cuttings midsummer seem like the only choice.
How to Use Cornelian Cherries
If the fruit are fully ripe, they’re sweet-tart with a very mild astringency. That’s too much for most American palates, but in the middle east, cornelian cherries are eaten as a snack with salt, and they’re also dried. The dried fruits are sold for use in traditional Chinese and Korean medicines for kidney issues.
Since the pits are so entrenched in the flesh, cornelian cherries are most commonly cooked into jams, jellies and syrups. With their rise in popularity in the US, they’re making their way into more westernized recipes from cheesecakes to fruit curds.
Cornelian Cherry Recipes
- Cornelian Cherry Curd
- Cornelian Cherry Cheesecake
- Cornelian Cherry Fruit Leather
- Cornelian Cherry Juice
- Cornelian Cherry Liqueur (Krana)
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S.
Thanks for the informative article! I’ve been wanting these for years and I think I’m going to buy seed this year (I’d kind of like the diverse genetics, plus it’s cheaper), so I’m just doing a bit of research.
The reason I’m commenting though–since you’re off-grid, a seedling heating mat is probably out of the question, but what about using thermal mass around the seeds you’re trying to warm-stratify? Like stack some warm bricks around the pots at night, or even a gallon jug or pot of hot water next to the stratifying seeds, then draped with a blanket or covered with a cardboard box to make a little heat tent? It might not be 68 the whole time, but it would keep it a few degrees warmer, which might just be enough.
Anyway, good luck with your propagating 😀
Ashley Adamant
I recently found a supplier of cornelian cherry seedlings, and they’re MUCH cheaper than just about anywhere else. It’s a wholesale nursery, and bulk things like hazelnuts are as little as $1-2 per plant. Small, but designed for local nurseries to buy and then grow out themselves and sell for a 10-20x markup. They have cornelian cherries here: https://www.burntridgenursery.com/CORNELIAN-CHERRY-DOGWOOD-Cornus-mas/productinfo/NSDOCOR/
If for whatever reason your seedlings don’t pan out, that’s a good backup plan. Either way, please let me know hot it goes with your seedlings, I’d love to hear about your process.
Becky Sewell
I collected a handful of Cornelian cherry fruits under a tree growing in Ithaca, NY, late last fall, and planted them about an inch deep in my propagation bed in back of my house. I put a piece of hardware cloth (wire mesh) over it to keep birds from digging them up, and am now awaiting spring to HOPEFULLY see them sprout!
I’m also attempting a winter-sowing of silverberries (Elaeagnus umbellata) in a milk-jug with seed-starting mix, moistened, and set out in the propagation area. The berries had dried before planting, so I don’t know if they’ll grow. I have more in the freezer, if these don’t, and a seedling bush that came up voluntarily in a flower-bed that I will take cuttings from to root – I need to be taking a LOT of cuttings from various things!
Have you tried soaking your cuttings in willow-water before sticking them in soil? ALL species of willow (Salix) naturally produces the indolebutyric acid (IBA) used in the rooting-hormone you buy, so if you’re truly “off-grid,” make your own IBA! Snip 2-3 foot pieces of willow-branch tips, cut them in 1-3″ pieces, and soak them 24-48 hours in lukewarm water, or overnight in hot water. It keeps in storage for 2 months or more, and you just soak your cuttings in some for a few hours before sticking them. You can also stick the cuttings, then water them in the propagation bed/box/or whatever you’re growing them in, twice, soaking the soil each time. After that, use regular water.
Kamyar
Hi,
How old were your cornelian cherries ries before they fruited? Were they grafted?
If a seedling was the taste acceptable for a chance seedling plant?
Thank you, Kamyar
Ashley Adamant
Since ours were already mature when we got them, I don’t know personally how long it takes for them to begin bearing fruit. I did a bit of research for you and I found a few other sites saying 4-5 years old before they’d begin bearing fruit. I’ve seen places selling seedlings, but I don’t know about the fruit quality personally, ours were grafted named varieties.
Tree Nut
In the event someone is interested in technical information: https://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/pg_cofl2.pdf
“Flowering dogwood seeds can be hand-sown into outdoor beds soon after collection (September to October). This allows for the seeds to undergo natural warm stratification prior to exposure to cooler winter temperatures. Imbibe seeds overnight, dust with fungicide, and hand-sow 5 to 6 inches apart in rows. Sprinkle endomycorrhizae over the seed before covering with soil. Mulch the bed with sawdust. Seeds can be artificially cold stratified for 100 to 130 days and germinated at 15 to 27oC. Prior to spring emergence (March to April), remove mulch. Place shade cloth above newly emerged seedlings and keep it in place until August. Flowering dogwood can also be propagated by cutting, grafting, layering, and root division. It roots easily from cuttings taken in June or immediately after the plants bloom. Cut 8 cm of the terminal shoot tip, keeping 2 to 4 leaves, and dip into a one part indole-butyric acid (IBA) to 250 part talc (by weight) mixture. Set cuttings approximately 3 cm deep in rooting medium and grow under a misting system with a photoperiod of at least 18 hours.”
Ashley Adamant
Thank you so much! This is really helpful =)
Françoise
I will experiment planting Cornelius mas seeds I picked today.( At least I know I like the taste)
I was planning to try half of them in the drupe to ensure moisture what do you think about this? I could keep them under the coal door for now then in the fridge. In the winter it would be too cold under the coal door here in Pittsburgh.
Ashley Adamant
I’ve not yet tried growing them from seed, so I don’t have any personal advice, unfortunately. In one of the comments above there’s a link to detailed instructions for growing from seed that I found really helpful. Good luck!
Becky Sewell
Just an update on my overwintered cherry seeds in the ground – they didn’t grow. Neither did the winter-sown Elaeagnus seeds in the milk jug. The chipmunks seem to have dug up and eaten all the cherry seeds (GRRR!!!). My brother gave me some that he had overwintered dry in a plastic bag in his basement workshop. I planted them this spring and am keeping them moist, but no signs of life from them, either.
Now I’m trying “the difficult, if not impossible,” growing pawpaw (Asimina triloba) root suckers I dug in early June. After getting as much of the lateral roots with each vertical sucker as I could, I planted them in two tubs of potting mix, inside my greenhouse, watered and misted them heavily, and put clear plastic trash bags over them. Every few hours I would mist them again, to keep the leaves from drying out. I kept the bags over the tubs for a couple of weeks, then removed them and continued misting every 2-4 hours all day (when I was home). Gradually I reduced the misting when they didn’t look wilted between misting, and now I just do it early morning and late evening, only during the day if it’s really hot and they droop a little. I dug two yesterday to pot for a friend, and was very pleased to see they were growing nice little feeder roots in various places on the lateral root. Pawpaws grow enormous taproots very quickly after germination, but they’re kind of finicky about germinating – the seeds must NEVER dry out, but be planted fresh, or taken from the fruit, cleaned and put immediately in a bag of moist potting soil and stratified in a refrigerator for 90-120 days. If they dry out, it can reduce the germination rate by as much as 80% or more. (They won’t grow!) That explains why the four seeds I planted last fall didn’t grow – they were dry. I would not buy pawpaw seeds online for that reason! Either buy seedlings or grafted trees.
Ashley Adamant
Woah, good to know! I wish pawpaw would grow here, there are a few experimental cultivars showing some hardiness in our climate at a local nursery, but no fruit yet. Maybe someday! But I didn’t know that about their germination…now if I do find cultivars I’ll definitely skip seeds. Good luck with your cornelian cherries, I hope it works out if you try again.
Becky Sewell
I will definitely be trying again – I’m stubborn, if nothing else!