ʽLedaʼ a new sour cherry cultivar

Abstract

Sour cherry is one of the most economically important temperate fruit species worldwide, which is widely used both fresh and processed. Due to the consumer demand for antioxidant-rich products, the development of new tart cherry selections with desirable quality characteristics is critical for the sustainability of cherry producers and processors. ‘Leda’ is a new sour cherry cultivar released from the sour cherry breeding program at the Institute PKB Agroekonomik. It was selected in mixed sour cherry orchard, from spontaneus seedlings population, and was recognized as cultivar in 2018 by the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management. The evaluation of this cultivar was done in comparison with the control cultivar ‘Oblačinska’ during a two-year period (2015 and 2017). Averagely, it bloomed a day or two after the control cultivar, while the ripening time was a day earlier than ‘Oblačinska’. The productivity is higher than the standard cultivar. The attractive bright red coloured fruits are larger (3.8 g), compared to ‘Oblačinska’ (3.3 g), with shorter fruit stalk length (2.9 and 3.4 cm, respectively). It has rich, mild flavour, sweet-acidic and harmonic taste, having slightly higher value of soluble solids/total acidity ratio (10.4) compared to the standard cultivar (9.5). ‘Leda’ is highly resistant to economically important diseases and pests (Monilinia laxa, Monilinia fructigena, Blumeriella jaapii, Wilsonomyces carpophilus and Rhagolethis cerasi). This cultivar could be used both for processing and fresh consumption.