Aging - 5 Gallon Barrel and Cherries

I'm thinking about purchasing a five gallon, recently emptied whiskey barrel. Brew up a barleywine or quad (not sure yet) and secondary in the barrel. But, I want to add cherries as well.

I understand that the barrel aging at this volume in this size barrel will probably be less than a month as to not over-oak the brew.

That leaves the question - will adding cherries to the barrel, and for only 2-3 weeks be enough time to impart cherry flavor? Or should I tertiary on cherries in my carboy for a longer period?

Any suggestions on the amount of cherries to use for a five gallon batch?

I'm going for some cherry flavor, not over the top. Maybe similar to Boulevard's Bourbon Barrel Quad or something similar.

I would do a tertiary for this. I wouldn't want fruit in my barrel, since I would want to control precisely the amount of oak flavor imparted, and the same for the fruit flavor.

Thanks! That is confirmation of what I was thinking.

I got the cherries-in-a-barrel concept into my head because that is what they do at Boulevard brewery. Or at least that is what the guide told us when I took the tour.

Tertiary does seem to make more sense for homebrewing and fine tuning the final product.