Breeding of new sour cherry cultivars at the Research Institute of Horticulture, Skierniewice, Poland

The sour cherry breeding program at the Research Institute of Horticulture (formerly known as the Research Institute of Pomology and Floriculture until the end of 2010) in Skierniewice began in 1954. The main objective of this program is to obtain new sour cherry genotypes which are well-suited to the climate and soil conditions in Poland, and which produce typical dessert fruit or fruit for use by the food processing and frozen-food industries. The new cultivars should be characterized by low susceptibility to diseases with economic costs. An important direction of sour cherry breeding is also towards obtaining new genotypes that will facilitate further intensification of fruit production by using combine harvesters. As part of the sour cherry breeding program, studies have also been conducted on selection within the Prunus mahaleb species of new generative rootstocks for sour cherry trees. To date, 11 cultivars and two generative rootstocks have been included in the national register of cultivars. Among these, only the cultivars ‘Sabina’, ‘Wanda’, and ‘Lucyna’, and both the generative rootstocks ‘Popiel’ and ‘Piast’ are used in commercial production. The most recent cultivar submitted for registration is ‘Granda’.