EVALUATION OF SOME BIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES AND SUSCEPTIBILITY TO BLUMERIELLA JAAPII OF SWEET CHERRY CULTIVARS IN KYUSTENDIL REGION, BULGARIA

The investigations were conducted on 12 sweet cherry (Prunus avium) cultivars in an experimental orchard of the cherry cultivar collection in the Institute of Agriculture at Kyustendil, Bulgaria from 1997 to 2008. The trees were planted in 1996. All cultivars were grafted on P. mahaleb rootstock.
The cultivar ‘Van’ was used as standard.
Threе biological properties of the cultivars were assessed which included bloom date, fruit ripening date, and average yield per tree.
The susceptibility of the cherry cultivars to cherry leaf spot caused by Blumeriella jaapii was assessed in mid-September during 1997 – 1998. Tree status for the most important stone fruit viruses was also assessed by DAS- ELISA test. ‘Starking Hardy Giant’ is a prospective cultivar with late flowering, ripening and high productivity for the Kyustendil region and other regions in Bulgaria with the similar climatic and topographical conditions.
Good results were obtained for the standard cultivar ‘Van’ regarding fruit maturity and high productivity.
All evaluated cultivars are susceptible to cherry leaf spot. ‘Royalton’, ‘Cherna Konyavska’, ‘Hebros’, ‘Starking Hardy Giant’, and ‘Sovreme¬nica’ are susceptible, as is ‘Van’. ‘Pobeda’, ‘Rumanka’, ‘WhiteGold (NY 13688)’, ‘Merton Premier’, ‘Somerset’ and ‘11-W 15-37’ are more susceptible than ‘Van’. All trees of ‘Starking Hardy Giant’, ‘Hebros’, ‘Somerset’, ‘Sovremenica’, ‘Van’, ‘Merton Premier’ and ‘WhiteGold’, three trees of ‘Royalton’ and one tree of ‘11- W- 15-37’ and ‘Pobeda’ were free of all tested viruses.

VI International Cherry Symposium

M. Borovinova, N. Christov, A. Borisova, S. Maneva

Prunus avium, testing, cherry leaf spot, viruses

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2014.1020.17