The composition of pollenizers for sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) cultivars released in the Republic of Serbia

Abstract

As the result of national breeding programmes, three sweet cherry cultivars have been named and released so far in the Republic of Serbia – ‘Asenova Rana’ and ‘Čarna’, developed by planned hybridization at Fruit Research Institute (FRI), Čačak, and ‘Canetova’, selected from natural cherry population at Faculty of Agriculture, University of Belgrade. In addition to the inadequate assortment structure, lacking in well-adapted domestic and introduced cultivars, sweet cherry production in Balkan region is generally accompanied by insufficient knowledge on gametophytic self-incompatibility, the fertilization relationship among the cultivars belonging to certain incompatibility groups, as well as phenological characteristics and synchronization during the flowering phenophase of the main cultivars and pollenizers. The assessment of an adequate pollenizer composition for ‘Asenova Rana’, ‘Čarna’ and ‘Canetova’ in this research is based on determined S-allele constitution, parameters of pollen tube growth in vivo in the pistils of these cultivars, and their perennial average flowering characteristics in relation to the introduced cultivars - potential pollenizers. The research was conducted in the main sweet cherry growing regions in the Republic of Serbia (West Serbia/Šumadija and region of Belgrade). It resulted in the development of a pollination scheme for in total 28 national and introduced cultivars, its application in the plant material production, and dissemination of quality national sweet cherry cultivars with adequate pollenizers. The results could also influence sweet cherry breeding work on development of genotypes with improved biological and productive characteristics, and application of modern molecular and reproductive biology methods in this research area.