Cherries in general do not like heat and humidity.
Where you are is only just slightly north of "The South", so I would expect they should do moderately well. May require some spraying for disease and fungus.
Typically cherry trees often do not have that long of a life in The South, since they have higher chances of succumbing to diseases. It's the heat combined with humidity.
Pennsylvania has a good level of cold though and the tree should be able to get enough chill hours. Occasionally cold snaps can be a problem for stone fruit, killing the new spring buds before fruit can form, but that is less of a problem with cherries. Where you are, I don't think that should be too bad, except the occasional every 5 or 10 years.
(If you are concerned about this, later blooming varieties, typically with a higher chill hour rating, could help avoid the early cold snaps, but the tree will still be vulnerable if there are later cold snaps in the year. So it might help but not completely solve the problem)
To reduce disease, it might be best to plant the tree in a more open area with the most sun exposure. (This advice is for your specific climate, not cherry trees in general)
You might also look up specific information about growing cherries and stone fruit in Pennsylvania.
https://extension.psu.edu/home-orchard-site-selectionIt might also help a little bit to get cherry varieties that are more resistant to cracking, since Pennsylvania does have a Summer rainfall.
I think in some ways, you being in the south part of Pennsylvania is a good thing. If you were just a hundred miles further north or south, you would start running into more problems. (More heat/humidity further south, more damage from cold snaps further north)
If you are looking for a more tart (sour) cherry that is more disease and cold tolerant, there is Northstar, but that is not really in the same category as normal sweet cherries.
Topic: Advice on Sweet cherry varieties zone 6b/7a (Read 784 times)