The sour cherry is cultivated for its tangy and aromatic flavor. The succulent fruit of sour cherries is mainly used in various industrial sectors of preserves such as jams, juices, purees, concentrates, alcoholic beverages, frozen, dried, or syruped fruit, jellies, concentrated juices, and confectionery products like pralines, candies, chocolates, and other uses. Sour cherry is also used as a rootstock for sweet cherry.
World production of sour cherries reached 1.15 million tons at the end of 2021. Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Poland, United States, and Serbia are the most important producing countries of sour cherries, accounting for about 72% of the world's sour cherry production.
Serbia produces 155 thousand tons of sour cherries. The main sour cherry production areas in Serbia include the Danube river valley, northern regions of Bačka, Toplica, and Nišava. The area of interest is part of a large fruit-growing zone known as the Čačak region.
In Serbia, sour cherry is a type of traditional fruit of great economic and social importance. It is cultivated on 19,551 ha, predominantly in small family-run farms. The predominant cultivar in Serbian orchards is "Oblačinska" (over 55%), followed by "Cigančica" (also called "Cigány Meggy" or 'Cigány'). These cultivars propagate by root suckers (without grafting) and produce "morello" type fruits, characterized by medium-small size, dark red thin skin.
The purpose of the study conducted by Tomo Milošević and colleagues at the Department of Fruit Growing and Viticulture of the Faculty of Agronomy, University of Kragujevac in Čačak (Serbia) was to investigate the suitability of seven clonal rootstocks (Colt, MaxMa 14, Krymsk 6, Adara, Cigančica, Gisela 5 and Gisela 6) and a seedling rootstock (myrobalan) grafted with the 'Šumadinka' sour cherry variety, through an experimental trial evaluating early tree development, precocity, productivity, and fruit quality.
Among the main results, significant differences were observed between rootstocks in leaf and petiole size, leaf area, tree vigor, yield, fruit size, soluble solids content, titratable acidity, sugar content, and vitamin C, ripeness and sweetness indices.
Trees grafted on Adara showed the highest vigor, while those on Gisela 6 produced larger fruits. On the other hand, Colt trees generally showed the highest sugar content and sweetness index. Adara also showed improvements in fruit quality characteristics, while the properties associated with Myrobalan received the lowest evaluation scores.
Highlights of the research indicate that the Adara rootstock demonstrated good adaptability to heavy and acidic soil conditions in Serbia, although it was originally selected for cherry cultivation in heavy, waterlogged, and calcareous soils in Spain. This adaptability likely contributed to its greater vigor, yield, production efficiency, and good fruit quality.
Source: Milošević, T., Milošević, N., Moreno, M.-A., & Mladenović, J. (2024). Tree performances of eight rootstocks grafted with ‘Šumadinka’ sour cherry. Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research, 22(2), https://doi.org/10.5424/sjar/2024222-20983.
Image: SL Fruit Service
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