SOME RESULTS WITH SWEET CHERRY BREEDING IN THE RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR FRUIT GROWING IN KUSTENDIL, BULGARIA

1. dark red cultivars with large size, firm flesh, good quality, productivity and different season of ripening, suitable for mechanical harvesting;
2. varieties with moderately of dwarf type of growth, good resistance of late spring frosts, good size of the fruits and heavy yielding. In the last years self-fertility is an important character;
3. interspecific hybrids between sour cherry and sweet cherry with good productivity.

Controlled cross-pollinations are made, populations of seedlings are grown and evaluated. Best of the selections are propagated on mahaleb rootstock for further evaluation. Pour sweet cherry cultivars have been named: Pobeda, Kustendilska hrushtialka, Cherna Konyavska and Bulgarska hrushtialka. Several elits have been selected, including No 2604, which has a good resistance to fruit cracking. Dwarf type mutants have been produced after grafting irradiated buds in 1964 from the cultivar Drogan yellow. Problems in cherry growing are late spring frosts and self-fertility. Some information about the inheritance of the most important characteristics of the sweet cherry has been obtained.

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