Articles
Development of cherry growing in Hungary
Article number
1408_1
Pages
1 – 8
Language
English
Abstract
The importance and volume of cherry industry in Hungary is larger than that of expectation based on the country size.
The sour cherry still dominates the domestic production.
The total domestic production in the average of last 10 years reached 10,000 t year‑1 sweet and 70,000 t year‑1 sour cherries.
The breeding of sour cherries utilized the rich landrace pool and resulted in cultivars like ‘Érdi bőtermő’, ‘Újfehértói fürtös’, ‘Kántorjánosi’, which produce around two third of the total production.
The cultivar breeding for sweet cherry resulted a large series; from among them ‘Rita’, ‘Carmen’, ‘Vera’, ‘Katalin’ are in a large-scale propagation while some newly bred cultivars are tested in new plantations.
Sweet cherries are produced in intensive orchard systems, predominantly on spindle trees planted in a density of 1200-2500 trees ha‑1 harvested by hand for fresh market.
The major rootstock is Prunus mahaleb, both seedlings and clonal selections, in young orchards appear some dwarf rootstocks from GiSelA, PiKU and WeiGi series.
Besides of Hungarians several cultivars from abroad are planted in new orchards.
In the sour cherry production still predominant is the vase canopy on mahaleb rootstock with 350-600 trees ha‑1 where trees are harvested mechanically by limb or trunk shakers.
Recent inventions apply high density orchard systems for sour cherry with spindle trees in a density of 1200-2500 trees ha‑1 harvested by overhead harvesters or shakers.
The Hungarian rootstock breeding focused to Prunus mahaleb L. utilizing the large diversity of this species.
Clonal selection resulted in vigorous (‘Bogdány’, ‘Egervár’) or moderate vigorous (‘Magyar’) rootstocks applicable for both sweet and sour cherries.
Our clonal mahalebs tolerate dry continental climate and lime soils, and due to positive effect on flat branching and good fruit size of scion cultivars are optimal for high density orchards.
The sour cherry still dominates the domestic production.
The total domestic production in the average of last 10 years reached 10,000 t year‑1 sweet and 70,000 t year‑1 sour cherries.
The breeding of sour cherries utilized the rich landrace pool and resulted in cultivars like ‘Érdi bőtermő’, ‘Újfehértói fürtös’, ‘Kántorjánosi’, which produce around two third of the total production.
The cultivar breeding for sweet cherry resulted a large series; from among them ‘Rita’, ‘Carmen’, ‘Vera’, ‘Katalin’ are in a large-scale propagation while some newly bred cultivars are tested in new plantations.
Sweet cherries are produced in intensive orchard systems, predominantly on spindle trees planted in a density of 1200-2500 trees ha‑1 harvested by hand for fresh market.
The major rootstock is Prunus mahaleb, both seedlings and clonal selections, in young orchards appear some dwarf rootstocks from GiSelA, PiKU and WeiGi series.
Besides of Hungarians several cultivars from abroad are planted in new orchards.
In the sour cherry production still predominant is the vase canopy on mahaleb rootstock with 350-600 trees ha‑1 where trees are harvested mechanically by limb or trunk shakers.
Recent inventions apply high density orchard systems for sour cherry with spindle trees in a density of 1200-2500 trees ha‑1 harvested by overhead harvesters or shakers.
The Hungarian rootstock breeding focused to Prunus mahaleb L. utilizing the large diversity of this species.
Clonal selection resulted in vigorous (‘Bogdány’, ‘Egervár’) or moderate vigorous (‘Magyar’) rootstocks applicable for both sweet and sour cherries.
Our clonal mahalebs tolerate dry continental climate and lime soils, and due to positive effect on flat branching and good fruit size of scion cultivars are optimal for high density orchards.
Publication
Authors
K. Hrotkó
Keywords
cherry production, cultivars, rootstock breeding, orchard systems
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