SOME RESULTS OF A SWEET CHERRY BREEDING PROGRAMME IN BULGARIA

The new breeding programme for sweet cherry cultivar improvement started in 1987 at the Fruit Growing Institute in Plovdiv.
One of its main purposes was to develop self-fertile, large-fruited cultivars using the small number of self-fertile cultivars and intersterile groups in this species.
The second aim was ro develop late-ripening cultivars which would extend the relatively short season for fruit ripening.
The hybridization scheme involved 16 parent combinations including open-pollinated populations.
The hybrids were created during the period 1987-1992 by sexual hybridization.
Their total number amounted to 1343 plants.
After assessing their breeding value, 17 elites were selected, most of which were also tested in France.
The best biological and economic traits were shown by the elites:
. 8-65 (‘Compact Stella’ – open-pollinated) – the fruits are medium large, very early ripening (10-12 days before cv. ‘Burlat’), with a very high fertility;
. 4-89 (‘Stella’ – open-pollinated) – its fruit characteristics are similar to those of ‘Stella’, but its degree of self-fertility is 36%.
. 28-209 (‘Lambert’ X ‘Badacsony’) – the fruits are big, compact, dark red in colour, ripening a week after cv. ‘Lambert’.

XI Eucarpia Symposium on Fruit Breeding and Genetics

A. Zhivondov, P. Gercheva, V. Djouvinov

Prunus avium, self-fertile, early and late ripening, hybrids

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2004.663.133