FOREWORD AND PREFACE

The 4th International Cherry Symposium was held in Hood River, Oregon (USA), and Richland, Washington (USA), from 24 to 29 June 2001 under the auspices of the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS). It followed those held in Germany (1968), Hungary (1993), and Norway (1997). The 4th International Cherry Symposium was organized by members of the ISHS Working Group on Cherry Production (F14).

The Symposium was preceded by a preconference tour of the cherry and nursery industries in Oregon’s Willamette valley, as well as research orchards at Oregon State University in Corvallis. Participants also had the unique experience of summer snowfall at Mt. Hood, as the tour crossed the Cascade mountain range for the opening of the Symposium on the banks of the Columbia River in Hood River, Oregon. The first two days of plenary sessions concluded with one of the Symposium’s outstanding contributions to international horticultural research, the evening workshop on the S-allele system of pollen incompatibility in sweet cherry. Essentially all of the world’s research leaders in this area were in attendance and provided an informal opportunity to present their latest results, as well as discuss strengths and discrepancies afforded by various studies. The culmination of this session is the extremely important paper, authored jointly by the key scientists at the workshop, which opens the 1st volume of the Acta. This first half of the Symposium also included a tour of production orchards and state-of-the-art packing facilities, as well as Oregon State University’s Hood River research station. The third day involved all participants being transported up the Columbia River to Richland, Washington. Along the way, participants spent time in production orchards, observed attempts to protect ripe cherries from a recent rainfall by wind machines and helicopters, and a visit to a USDA fruit entomology research station. The 4th and 5th days included more plenary sessions, workshops on rootstocks, marketing, postharvest, and fruit cracking, and a tour of Washington State University’s research center at Prosser. At the Cherry Working Group (F14) Business Meeting on the 5th day, the Chairmanship passed from Dr. Lars Sekse (Ullensvang Research Centre) to Dr. Gregory Lang (Michigan State University) and Dr. Masum Burak (Turkey) was elected Vice-Chair. The ISHS Working Group on Cherry Production is looking forward to the 5th International Cherry Symposium to be held in Turkey in 2005 under the leadership of Dr. Masum Burak (email address).

Finally, these proceedings also include the papers from the excellent Cherry Training Systems Workshop, organized by Dr. Terence Robinson and held during the 26th International Horticultural Congress in Toronto, Canada (August 2002). This series of papers, which opens the 2nd volume of the Acta, is a special bonus for both cherry scientists and growers, as it provides a link between the International Cherry Symposia for the rapidly evolving advances in high density sweet cherry training concepts and experiences.

Gregory A. Lang

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The international scientific advisory committee for the working group made valuable contributions to the organization of the Symposium. We are indebted to those scientists who served as moderators of the oral sessions during the Symposium: F. Kappel, J. Apostol, P. Wiersma, K. Hrotko, L. Long, P. Lauri, G. Nielsen, D. Elfving, G. Kupferman, and G. Grove, and to those who served as moderators of the Symposium workshops: A. Iezzoni, K. Hrotko, D. Ricks, G. Kupferman, and J. Flore. Additionally, the outstanding opportunities to take the venue of scientific inquiry directly into the cherry research and production orchards of the Pacific Northwest USA and Canada, during pre-, post-, and concomitant Symposium tours, were made possible by the exceptional organization and gracious hosting skills of A. Azarenko, L. Long, R. Nunez, C. Seavert, G. Lang, M. Whiting, T. Smith, F. Kappel, and H. Arndt.

We also are indebted to J. Olmstead for his organizational assistance with coordinating registration, abstracts, contributed papers, and submitted manuscripts, as well as the fine staff at the Washington State Fruit Commission for managing the Symposium’s financial matters.

In addition to the academic sponsors listed earlier, the financial sponsorship of the Oregon Sweet Cherry Commission, the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, the Washington State Fruit Commission, the Cherry Marketing Institute, the California Cherry Advisory Board, the Wasco County Fruit & Produce League, Wilbur-Ellis, UAP Pacific, C&O Nursery, and Van Well Nursery is also greatly appreciated.

PREFACE

This two-volume set of Acta Horticulturae constitutes the Proceedings of the 4th International Cherry Symposium: Advances in Cherry Genetics, Physiology, Technology, and Management.

Invited and keynote speakers and selected authors of oral papers and posters had the opportunity to submit manuscripts for publication in this volume of the series Acta Horticulturae. All manuscripts, whether complete or preliminary research reports, overviews, or workshop outcomes, were reviewed by the Editor and one or more external reviewers or the Editorial Board, and were amended according to the referee suggestions prior to acceptance.

The ISHS acknowledges the cooperation received from the Editor and the Editorial Board on reviewing the manuscripts which was a significant contribution to the overall quality of the publication.

The ISHS Board of Directors