NEW SOUR CHERRY VARIETIES AND SELECTIONS IN HUNGARY

Sour cherry production is the most profitable fruit crop in Hungary. Breeding was begun by Paul Maliga more than half of a century ago, and landrace selection began more than 40 years ago by Tibor Szabó and his colleagues. The major breeding objectives are to broaden the range of ripening times, develop self-fertile varieties with high yields of good fruit quality, and to increase disease resistance/tolerance. In the past decade, two varieties have been added to the National Variety List Registry from the landrace selection program: `Debreceni bõtermõ` and `Kántorjánosi 3’. From the breeding program, several genotypes have been submitted recently for registration: IV 3/48, Piramis^® (IV-2/152), Érdi nagygyümölcsû, and the landrace selection Du-1. The ripening period now extends nearly 8 weeks, from late mid-May to mid-July.