Regional Evaluation of Seven Newly Introduced Sweet Cherry Cultivars in North-East of Iran (Shahrood)

Abstract

We evaluated five new introduced cultivars of sweet cherry (‘Stella’, ‘Sunburst’, ‘Summit’, ‘Subima’, and ‘Germesdorfi Coln 3’) with two control cultivars (‘Siah Mashhad’ and ‘Sileg Belamarka’) in one of the main temperate fruit production regions in North-East of Iran (Shahrood) during 2014 to 2016. Tree growth, flowering phenology, pollination, fruit set characteristics, and fruit quality were assessed in ten-year-old trees. ‘Summit’ and ‘Sunburst’ had the maximum and minimum tree height and tree canopy extension, respectively. ‘Stella’ had the highest yield and received the highest score in the organoleptic test. The lowest yield was observed in ‘Sunburst’ with the highest fruit weight (7.40 g). ‘Sileg Belamarka’ had the highest percentage of fruit set when open-pollinated. Complete compatibility in a field self-pollination experiment was confirmed for ‘Sunburst’ and ‘Stella’ and relative compatibility was observed in ‘Germesdorfi Coln 3’. All the introduced cultivars especially ‘Stella’ appeared well adapted to the Shahrood climate conditions.