I have two of each in the ground in Mesa in full sun with no problems on Mazzard Full Standard Rootstock.

I have a total of seven. The ones with afternoon shade are head & shoulders happier than the others, but they will survive in full sun.

Ahhh thats good news. They are taking the transplant from container to soil hard right now with lots of drooping leaves. Sure hope they can pull through, I know trying to get them started this time of year is kinda foolish. I built some hoop shades for them tonight to give them some relief from the sun and hope it helps. Its gonna crush me if I loose them as ive been lusting for them for about 4 months now.

Give them a break in the afternoon thru Sept to let them concentrate on getting established if possible. They are full sun trees but need to get used to your micro climate first.

The preferred planting time for fruit trees is November though January so they have a chance to get established before the summer heat hits. The hoop shades are a good idea and will help. Best of luck to you.

I planted 4 different cherry trees back in late Feb. All 4 are in full sun. Among them are a Minnie Royal and a Royal Lee. I erected a shade cloth structure on the west sides of my trees to help them through the first summer or two. So far they are doing great.
Right now, I water mine 2X a week. I envy your flood irrigation.

We have flood irrigation but I've not used it since starting my gardens. For those that flood and have veggie gardens, how do you do it? My trees could really stand to get back on an irrigation schedule. I'd love to have a way to direct flow and even save the water for the garden somehow. Seems like such a waste.

We have a huge garden on flood irrigation and the yield we get from it is amazing. What exactly about using the flood water worries you? Our watering schedule is water manually every other day except after we flood irrigate. It takes about 4 days for the ground to dry after that then we go back to every other day. Ive not found it possible to rely only on the watering that the flood irrigation provides, every two weeks just doesnt cut it. But the real beauty of the irrigation is that it washes out the accumulated salts out of the soil from the regular watering. And that is HUGE!

As soon as I figure out how to post pictures I will post some.

Ok here is our garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: Irrigated garden

And here is one of the cherry trees I posted about. Im happy to report that its perking up nicely.

Here is a link that might be useful: Minnie Royal cherry

Now im just showing off. :P Pictured here starting on the left is a lemon, grapefruit, orange, big boy in the middle is our plum, behind is apricot, pear, apple, two types of grapes, not in the picture is pomigrante, nectarine, peach, fig, banana, mango. the two little squirts in the shade are a mexicola and bacon avacado. God bless flood irrigation.

Here is a link that might be useful: Orchard

amadioranch, everything looks great!

Amadioranch, The cherry tree looks real nice, mind me asking where you found it? Ive been looking for a few mature trees. Thx

Don't mind at all. Found them from a ad on craigslist. Nice fellow by the name of Don near bell and 35thave. His ad is for exotic fruit trees. He had a total of 4-4 yr old cherries of which I bought 2. So he did have another pair sitting there as of a week ago. Be prepared, he doesn't give them away. ;-) but they are healthy and pretty mature.

Thank you! I am familiar with him as I have bought other trees in the past from there. I never thought to ask him about cherries. Il give him a shout today. Please let us know how your cherries come along thru out the year, I know alot of us are curious. Thx again.

Here's a picture of a Royal Lee I planted last year in full sun. In the same bed there are two 1 year old Mini Royals and a Royal Lee I planted early March 2011. The older Royal Lee would be a lot bigger but I summer pruned it fairly heavily last year and it stopped growing for a few months in the middle of the season.

{{gwi:408510}}

The thing I'm worried about is that my lower gardens are completely covered in water for at least 24 hours. Won't that kill most vegetables? The water level is 6-18 inches, depending on what part of the yard it is.

tracydr I think it would kill most vegetables. I sure wouldn't want to plant tomatoes under those conditions thats for sure. I don't think it would harm a cherry tree on a standard rootstock though.

Our irrigation floods our garden and submerges most of the plants.....not a problem at all. They dont die or even show any stress from it. The veggies grown from seed that have been underwater on a regular basis are:english cucumbers, armenian cucumbers, cilantro, beets, carrots, 3 types of tomatoes, zucchini, sweet corn, green onion, squash. Dont fear the irrigation!!!

I went over to Dons place yesterday and picked up a couple of nice mature cheery trees. I also grabbed 4 huge 10 foot tall Mexican Cream and Vietnamese White Guava trees, 1 8 foot loquat with fruit on it, Big Jim. And a couple of 15 gallon Almond trees. Im gonna put the cherries under a fabric thru Sept to be safe.

Just a warning about the cherries. Im having a hell of a time making them happy. Putting them in the ground now was a mistake and if I had it to do over I would keep them in the container and put them in the shade until october. The biggest problem im having is that they are acting like they are constantly thirsty (by 5pm alot of the leaves want to curl and are dry), but its a very delicate ballance because if they get watered even a little too much they start with the yellow leaves and droping them. And its only going to get worse as it gets hotter. Ill be lucky to have these survive. Do yourself a favor and leave them be and keep them in the shade like Don had them.

Thank you for the info, maybe il wait to plant mine.