CHERRY BREEDING WORK AND ACHIEVEMENTS IN HUNGARY

When cherry research began in 1950, we stated that not only were too few varieties grown in Hungary, but varietal deficiencies caused a number of problems, preventing profitable large-scale sweet cherry production. Deficiencies included: insufficient market quality; gaps in the ripening period among cultivars; lack of suitability for picking, especially for machine harvest; lack of suitability for different alternative uses (fresh consumption or various processed commodities); low yield; poor winter hardiness; inadequate knowledge to match varieties in the orchard for good pollination, considering bloom period, compatibility, and ripening time. To solve these problems, large scale research work was started, covering variety trials and selection, biological studies and breeding.

New varieties should better satisfy the requests of producers and consumers than the old ones. These requests are:

• precocity in cropping; consistent high yields; self-fertility or reciprocally effective pollination
• different bloom periods; many blooms (earlier or later bloom, and/or filling gaps in the series)
• good market quality
• suitability for picking, especially machine harvest; moderate vigour; compact growth; upright, diverging crown shape
• winter hardiness; pest and disease tolerance
• different types of varieties for the various uses of the processing industry.

The steps of breeding work done to realize the targets were:

1. Evaluation of pomological features of known varieties
2. Clonal selection of these varieties and evaluation of clones
3. Collection and evaluation of local or regional varieties
4. Anatomical and biological studies of the cherry pit and embryo
5. Creation of natural populations, choosing certain genotypes as parents
6. Cross-breeding program
7. In vitro embryo culture
8. Mutation breeding
9. Studies on dominance
10. Small trials and orchard trials in growing regions
11. Evaluation of fruit value
12. Official evaluation of the variety at the state institution
13. Application for patent rights
14. Publications, lectures
15. Demonstrations and exhibitions

Clonal selection is based on the fact that the species incline to vegetative alteration, e.g. bud mutation. Consistent clonal selection of important cultivars aims to maintain their original features, but there is also an opportunity to choose specimens (clones) that better serve certain purposes. These are called "+" and "-" variants. The success of clonal selection depends on the number of collected and observed plants, and on the detail of the observation.

From 1951 to 1960, 293 clones of 8 sweet cherry varieties and 127 clones of 4 sour cherry varieties were observed and evaluated. Clonal selection of sour cherry had special

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