Genetic resources are the base for improving the assortment of sweet cherry and large fruit cherry plum

Federal State Funded Institution of Science “The Labor Red Banner Order Nikita Botanical Gardens – National Scientific Center of the RAS”, Nikita, 298648 Yalta, Russia

^* Corresponding author: valgorina@yandex.ru

Abstract

The article presents the results of research on the genetic resources of sweet cherry and cherry plum in the Nikita Botanical Gardens - National Scientific Center. Cultivars which are the sources and donors of valuable economical and biological traits: late flowering, its duration, winter hardiness, drought resistance, large-fruited, very early and very late ripening and fruit taste, resistance to cracking in sweet cherry fruits have been identified. In order to create highly productive cultivars and breeding forms resistant to abiotic factors, sources of valuable traits from genetic collections were used, which significantly increased the efficiency of the breeding process. The gene pool includes more than 300 sweet cherry genotypes and more than 400 cherry plums. New promising cultivars have been identified. They allow updating the conveyor for obtaining high-quality fruits in the southern zone of horticulture. Ten cultivars of sweet cherry: Uslada, Prizerka, Vesnyany Naspivy, Pikovaya Dama, Kutuzovka, Chernokrymka, Vitivnitsa, Znatnaya, Zarya Vostoka, Karadag and six cultivars of cherry plum: Andromeda, Desertnaya Rannaya, Obil’naya, Femida, Rumyanaya Zor’ka have been included in the State register of breeding in the Crimea and southern Russia. Four sweet cherry cultivars: Kudesnitsa, Ocharovanie, Triumf, Dolgojdannaya and one cherry plum cultivar: Feeriya, are undergoing a state test. Five new cultivars of sweet cherry and three cultivars of cherry plum, which surpass the zoned cultivars in a complex of valuable biological and economical characteristics, have been originated. The patents were received on these cultivars. A number of elite breeding forms of sweet cherry and cherry plum, which have a number of advantages over existing cultivars, have been originated.