Comparison of some of the quantitative and qualitative properties of new cherry cultivars in the conditions of Razavi Khorasan province

Background and objective: Cherry is one of the most important fruits consumed in the world, which has a good taste, aroma and appearance. Currently, the only important commercial variety of cherry is Takdan-e-Mashhad cultivar in the country. This cultivar has considerable quantitative and qualitative characteristics, but the self-incompatibility and diversity in the clones in it lead to a decrease in the productivity of the introduced pollinators and the resulting decrease in yield in some years.

Materials and methods: In order to investigate the compatibility of new imported cherry cultivars and to increase the diversity of existing cultivars in the country and to achieve high-yielding cultivars of a number of new cherry cultivars named ‘Lapins’, ‘Sweet Ann’, ‘Sweet heart’, ‘Early Star’, ‘Vera’, ‘Celeste’, ‘Sunburst’ and two control cultivars named ‘Takdan-e-Mashhad’ and ‘Siah-e-Mashhad’ grafted on mahaleb rootstock were evaluated in the form of randomized complete block design with three replications for 3 years in Khorasan Razavi province.

Results: There was a difference between cultivars in terms of the beginning and end of flowering; thus, ‘Celeste’ cultivar was the earliest flowering (6 April) and ‘Takdan-e-Mashhad’ cultivar was the late flowering (12 April). The fruit harvesting time of the cherry cultivars was also different, so that ‘Early Star’ cultivar was the earliest (27 May) and ‘Takdan-e-Mashhad’ cultivar was the latest (3 July). In the examination of morphological traits, it was found that the height of cultivars varied between 326.66 cm in 'Celeste' cultivar and 497.22 cm in 'Siah-e-Mashhad' cultivar. Also, the maximum width of the crown and diameter of the trunk were respectively in the variety "Siah-e-Mashhad" with the values of 316.66 cm and 49.66 cm. The highest number of spur per 100 cm of branch length (38.06) was related to 'Celeste' cultivar and the lowest number of spur (24.76) was related to 'Lapins' cultivar. In the investigation of the pomological characteristics of studied cherry cultivars, it was found that the shape of the fruit varies from kidney (‘Vera’, ‘Sunburst’, ‘Takdan-e-Mashhad’ and ‘Siah-e-Mashhad’) to heart-shaped (‘Sweet heart’, ‘Sweet ann’, ‘Lapins’, ‘Celeste’, ‘Early Star’) among the cultivars. There was also variation in the skin colour of the fruits, so that there was four groups: bright red (‘Lapins’), red (‘Sunburst’, ‘Sweet heart’, ‘Sweet ann’), dark red (‘Siyah-e-Mashhad’) and blackish red (‘Takdan-e- Mashhad’, ‘Vera’, ‘Celeste’) were divided. The fruit weight was variable among the cultivars studied; thus, the highest fruit weight (10.03) was observed in ‘Takdan-e-Mashhad’ cultivar and the lowest fruit weight (6.08) was observed in ‘Vera’ cultivar. In terms of yield, a significant difference was observed among the cultivars studied; Thus, the highest yield (31.63 kg per tree) was observed in ‘Sweet heart’ cultivar and the lowest yield (4.99 kg per tree) was observed in ‘Siyah-e-Mashhad’ cultivar. The stone weight also varied from 0.20 in the ‘Vera’ to 0.50 in the ‘Takdan-e-Mashhad’ cultivar. The length of the fruit peduncle was also different among the cultivars; thus, the highest length of fruit peduncle (4.55 cm) was observed in ‘Siyah-e-Mashhad’ cultivar and the lowest length of fruit peduncle (2.90 cm) was observed in ‘Celeste’ cultivar. Soluble solids varied from 23.95% in ‘Sweet heart’ to 18.38% in ‘Lapins’ cultivar. Acidity and pH also showed differences among the cultivars studied; So that the highest acidity and pH respectively (0.186% - 3.74) in ‘Vera’ and ‘Celeste’ cultivars and the lowest acidity and pH (0.142 - 3.42) in ‘Sunburst’ and ‘Siah-e-Mashhad’ cultivars.