'Lenka', a new sour cherry cultivar from Serbia

Abstract

Lenka' is a new sour cherry cultivar released from the sour cherry breeding program at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Belgrade. It was selected as a spontaneous seedling and recognized as cultivar in 2014 by the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection. The evaluation of this cultivar was done in comparison with the control cultivar 'Meteor Korai' during a two-year period (20122013). Averagely, it bloomed a day after the control cultivar. Method of fluorescent microscopy indicated that this is a self-compatible cultivar. The ripening time is a day after 'Meteor Korai'. The productivity is on a level with standard cultivar. The fruit is larger (7.6 g), compared to 'Meteor Korai' (5.6 g), with significantly higher fruit stalk length (4.5 and 3.6 cm, respectively). The taste is sweet-acidic, harmonic, having higher value of soluble solids/total acidity ratio (17.7) compared to the standard cultivar (13.7). 'Lenka' is highly resistant to economically important diseases (Monilinia laxa, Monilinia fructigena, Blumeriella jaapii and Wilsonomyces carpophilus) and low teperatures. Regarding large fruit and pleasant taste, this cultivar could be used both for processing and fresh consumption.