Genetic Divergence of Sour Cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) 'Montmorency' Clones

Abstract

To determine the overall degree of variability and detect divergence among 12 clones of the sour cherry cultivar 'Montmorency', seven characteristics (flowering and fruiting phenology, as well as leaf morphology traits) were evaluated. Clones were selected from the commercial orchard of PKB "Vocarske plantaze" Bolec, Begaljica near Belgrade, Serbia. Agronomic evaluation of the clones revealed considerable diversity for almost all characters studied. In order to investigate breeding response and genetic relationships among the studied clones, and to help breeders to meet the selection objectives, phenotypic and genetic correlations were calculated among the presently evaluated characteristics and nine previously evaluated and published characteristics. Significant correlation coefficients were found between fruit dimensions and fruit weight, and between soluble solids and sugar content. A cluster analysis showed that the 'Montmorency' clones formed three distinct groups. The first cluster consisted of six clones (3, 6, 4, 11, 8 and 10), the second cluster included only two (9 and 14), while the third had four clones (5, 7, 12 and 13). Despite the significant differences among clones, number of fruits set and fruits harvested contributed to the separation of these clusters.