FERTILITY OF SOUR CHERRY VARIETIES SELECTED IN HUNGARY

Selection of sour cherry genotypes in northeast Hungary was initiated by the Research Station of Újfehértó. To date, three self-fertile varieties have been selected: ‘Debreceni bőtermő’, ‘Kántorjánosi’, and ‘Újfehértói fürtös’ (‘Balaton^®’). These yield consistently and are adapted to mechanical harvest. Their fruit characteristics are comparable to ‘Pándy meggy’, the best known variety in Central Europe, and are suitable for fresh as well as processing markets.
The productivity of these varieties was studied under conditions of self-fertility and open pollination from 1989 to 2000. The results were highly variable. When averaged across 17 years, it was found that these varieties set less fruit by autogamy than by allogamy: ‘Debreceni bőtermő’ fruitset was 5.5% by self pollination and 22.5% by open pollination; ‘Kántorjánosi’ set 4.6% and 20.2%, respectively; ‘Újfehértói fürtös’ set 5.4% and 22.2%, respectively. Cross pollinations between these three varieties and the self -incompatible ‘Pándy meggy’ revealed that none are suitable pollinizers for ‘Pándy meggy’, and reciprocal combinations set poorly as well. Poor fertilization occurred in the combinations ‘Újfehértói fürtös’ (♀) × ‘Debreceni bőtermő’ or ‘Kántorjánosi’, whereas the reciprocal combinations proved to be sufficiently fertile.