cherry location

[4430jd]

I have cherry on both farm land and high mountain land.  Before I saw the mountain trees, is the quality any different between the two. I am in central PA.  I usually saw some nice cherry on the low land.

[Ron Wenrich]

Generally speaking, the better quality trees lie in northeast and northwest coves on mountains where they are protected from the drying sun and have deep soils.  Also, better quality trees are found at the base of mountains where the soil is deeper, and there is better moisture.  That doesn't mean that the quality of mountain grown timber is poor, just that there is less stress on trees given different aspects on the mountain.

A soils map of the area probably would help you out as to where the better qualities are located.  If you're trying to manage your property for future growth and value, you would want to remove the trees that aren't well suited for any site or are of poor quality.  If the mountain area is better for growing chestnut oak vs cherry, you would opt for the chestnut oak, for example. 

In my area, we get a lot of gum streak in cherry.  That isn't so much a factor of location as it is with the time of the previous harvest.  Seems that peach bark beetle will take a liking to nesting in slash during the harvest and then attacks the residual stand.  Stressed trees are more susceptible.  If you're just cutting a few trees from the stand, that shouldn't be too much of a problem. 

You could cut a couple of the mountain trees and see how much of a difference there is in quality.