'Stella' Cherry tree has wimpy fruit 'buds'

Hello Folks
Don't know what you call a cherry when it is 1st developing: about 1/3 of the fruit is progressing but mostly the tree is showing shrunken underdeveloped fruit; when I gently shake the tree limb they fall readily.

What am I doing wrong? The tree is approx six years old and produced well the first year, not so good next year etc. I water and I am not using any chemical fertilizer. The 'black 'aphids are trying to move in so the tree must be stressed somehow.

Suggestions? Wrong tree for Port Alberni?

Thank you.

 

I don't know what your weather was like during cherry pollination season this year. Ours started out cool and wet and ended with hot and dry, but our 2 Stella trees had very poor pollination success. The older, larger tree on the south side of the house set fruit on less than 1% of the blossoms; and the tree on the north side set only slightly more, probably because it bloomed a bit later. Besides bad weather, we also had a lack of pollinators; I saw only one honey bee on the trees during bloom. I put out about 200 mason bees, but they had the additional choice of apple, pear, and prune plum trees to pollinate. Apparently, they prefer the other trees, because all of them had a super fruit set. I just finally finished thinning the overabundance of fruit on them. So, Creatrix, if you had similar conditions, there is probably nothing wrong with your tree; if you get 1/3 of blossoms setting fruit, you're doing much better than I.

 

Thank you Vitog for the encouragement: the blossoms were better than the past four years and my small troup of mason bees were late 'hatching': I just have never seen so many tiny pale red shriveled 'fruit' before: so, I am to understand that is a normal visual if the blossoms were not pollinated well? As far as the hoards of black aphids: I sprayed the offending tips with Safer's and clipped the ends of the worst infested and dropped it into a bucket of soapy water.
Good for you re: all your fruit trees re: thinning: My apple (10 years old) put out 3 fruits and the pear about 8 ... I have come to realize I may not have the touch for fruit trees and should stick to growing garlic and barley! LOL
Weather here: Port Alberni Valley can see up-towards 40 ℃ and rain rain rain over the winter/spring: rarely gets below - 5℃ in the winter.

 

I grew up with three large untended apple trees that seemed to have a 2 years on/1 year off cycle; every third year they had five apples. I just can't remember if the three of them did that at the same time. It might not be personal.

 

LOL I feel better now!