ELAIAŞI – new sweet cherry cultivar with high productivity and medium ripening time

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to improve the autochthonous sweet cherry assortment with new cultivars of good adaptability and ecological plasticity, with superior biological potential, productive, with quality fruits and superior features, in comparison to existing cultivars. Due to the characteristic of having an earlier ripening age for the fruits compared to the other tree species (beginning in May), the cherry is the first ring in the annual chain of fruits production. On the fresh fruits market, the preferred ones are the cultivars type ‘bigarreau’, with shining red colour, resistant to cracking, transport and temporary storage with the weight of over 7 g. Analysing the main phenological stages for the two cultivars, it was noticed that the new sweet cherry cultivar ‘Elaiaşi’ is average both in flowering beginning time and fruits maturation season. In regards to average productions for five years (2012 - 2016), from the statistical point of view, it was noticed that ‘Elaiaşi’ (21.1 kg/tree) recorded production with insignificant positive differences in comparison to the witness cultivar ‘Van’ (20.2 kg/tree). Under the aspect of fruits’ weight and equatorial diameter, ‘Elaiaşi’ (8.8 g and, respectively, 25.1 mm) recorded significant and respectively positive significant differences, in comparison to the witness cultivar ‘Van’ (7.6 g and 23.9 mm). Concerning the fruit’s resistance to cracking, ‘Elaiaşi’ cultivar presented a superior resistance (2.7 %) to the witness cultivar ‘Van’ (42.0 %), recording distinct significant negative differences in comparison to this cultivar from the statistical point of view.