'Stella' sweet cherry

摘要

The introduction of 'Stella' in 1968 was significant, as it was the first self-fertile sweet cherry cultivar with good fruit quality (6). The fruit were described as black, large, heart.to oval in shpae with a medium course flesh. The flavor was rated as fair to good. Early descriptions were that the flesh was moderately firm, however grower experience since introduction has suggested that it is too soft for use in British Columbia because of the requirement for long distance shipping. Until the release of 'Stella', sweet cherry cultivars were considered to be self-in-compatible, also certain groups of cultivars are cross-incompatible (12). Commercial growers of sweet cherries needed to plant two or three cultivars of sweet cherries from different compatibility groups, with overlapping bloom periods to ensure adequate pollination and fruit set. As Tehrani and Brown (12) indicate this requires increased expense and potential management problems for growers. The advent of self-fertile cultivars allowed growers to plant larger blocks of single cultivars, helping to ease management of the orchard. In addition, self-fertile cultivars ensured more consistent production by producing fruit in years with poor pollination conditions (cool, wet with low bee flight( (4, 12). Lane (4) reported that bee pollination of 'Stella' improved the final fruit set and number of fruits harvested. Conversely, the self-fertility trait has the potential for over cropping in years when pollination conditions are ideal. This can lead to over cropping and reduction in fruit size, an important quality trait in the marketplace.