The DCA Cherry Breeding Program

摘要

The seven sweet cherry cultivars making up the Star series bred at Italy's Bologna University are derived from crosses of quality-selected European genotypes and self-fertile American counterparts. All the new releases are covered by EU patent and some are covered by those from Australia, Chile, South Africa and the United States. All the licensing arrangements with individual or groups of nurseries for the Star series are handled through the CRPV agri-services agency in Cesena. Figure 1 shows the current number of licenses and the countries in which they were granted. The number of Star-series plants propagated from 2000 to 2007 in Italy alone amounts to more than 250,000. The seven Star cultivars cover a ripening period of about four weeks in theVignola district that runs from May 20 with Sweet Early (several days pre-Burlat) and ends in mid-June with Big Star (several days post-Lapins).