Testing of sweet cherry varieties in Belgium

Keywords: Production, fruit weight, picking time, crack and rot sensitivity and firmness

The 4 main sweet cherry varieties grown in Belgium are ‘Kordia’, ‘Lapins’ ‘Regina’ and ‘Sweetheart’, but all of them have some disadvantages. ‘Kordia’ is susceptible to frost, with ‘Regina’ the fruit set is not really easy, ‘Lapins’ is susceptible to cracking and Sweetheart’ has a tendency to crack and rot and has a small harvest window. In addition to these 4 varieties ‘Schneiders Spate Knorpelkirche’, ‘Summit’, ‘Karina’ and ‘Sylvia’ also are grown in Belgium. The latter 2 are especially recommended as pollenizers for ‘Regina’. As for ‘Regina’, the fruit set of ‘Schneiders Spate Knorpelkirche’ and ‘Summit’ is often insufficient as well. Ideally, the assortment should be completed with a self-fertile variety that is not susceptible to frost or cracking. The ideal variety should be productive, early or late ripening, low in vigour and have a good fruit quality (firm, large and dark). It should be grafted on ‘Gisela5’rootstock. Our research institutes evaluates a high number of cherry varieties every year. In the first screening 3 trees per variety grafted on ‘Gisela5’are planted, with ‘Kordia’ as a standard. These varieties are assessed for at least 4 production years. The best varieties from the first screening are planted at a larger scale (second screening) as soon as possible, with the intention of finding solutions to their negative qualities. From the varieties planted in the first screening since 1999, ‘Skeena’, ‘Hertford’, ‘Samba’, ‘Korvik’, ‘Grace Star’, ‘Poisdel’ and ‘Rubin’ are currently evaluated in the second screening. Other interesting varieties in the first screening are ‘Folfer’, ‘Areko’ and ‘Penny’. From these varieties ‘Samba’, ‘Korvik’ and ‘Grace Star’ are already grown on a commercial scale in Belgium.

(Research done with financial support of CMO)

Documents

Testing of sweet cherry varieties in Belgium () Poster presentation

Details

Activity type

Participation in scientific conference

Activity work package

Performance of new fruit varieties

Activity number

PCFRUIT-WP2-A71

Activity contact

Vercammen Jef
Pcfruit vzw - Proeftuin pit- en steenfruit
Fruittuinweg 1
3800 Sint-Truiden
Belgium
Tel.: +32 (0)11 69.70.81
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.pcfruit.be

Activity partner

PCFRUIT

Activity country

Belgium

Last edit

25-07-2017

Event

Event name

8th International Cherry Symposium

Event location

Yamagata (Japan)

Event participants

250 persons from 29 countries

Event dissemination

Poster presentation