Bird cherry Sakhalin Sustainable

Seedling from open pollination of common bird cherry from Sakhalin Island. Originator — Central Siberian Botanical Garden, SB RAS. Authors: V.S. Simagin, V.P. Belousova. Introduced into the State Register in 1999 for the West Siberian region.

Large tree, 6–7 m tall, with a medium-density pyramidal crown, densely leafed. Bark gray-brown, rough. Shoots directed upward, brown, medium thickness, straight; lenticels numerous, light brown. Vegetative buds large, pointed-oval; generative buds oval-oval, pressed against the shoot. Leaf elliptical, large, 8 x 4 cm, green, apex long-acuminate, base broadly cuneate, leaf margin serrated, wavy, glabrous; leaf blade flat, slightly curved downward; glands 3–4, large, yellow, bean-shaped; petiole 1.5 cm long, thick, pigmented. Flowers in medium-density racemes, 10–12 cm long, 30–35 flowers, flower diameter 16 mm, corolla saucer-shaped, petals not closed, white, round-oval, stigma slightly higher than stamens, calyx wide-bowl-shaped, sepals unnotched; stamens about 20, 4 mm long, stigma 5 mm long. Flowering on one-year shoots.

Fruit weighing 0.5–0.6 g, 7 mm high, 7.2 mm wide, 7 mm thick, round; cup wide, small; apex rounded; skin color black, solid; flesh green, with maroon veins, tender, juice burgundy; pedicel 1.2 cm long, thin; seed egg-shaped, ribbed, weighing 0.08 g, 16% of fruit mass, apex pointed, base rounded, detachment from flesh medium.

Fruits are single-dimensional, attractive. Flesh juicy. Taste sour-sweet with astringency, good, score 4.2. Easy detachment from pedicel. Suitability for mechanical harvesting low. Resistance to fruit cracking medium. All-purpose variety. Fruits suitable for drying, compote, and juice production. Fruits contain 26.8% dry matter, 10.1% sugars, 0.84% free acids, 16.2 mg/100g ascorbic acid.

Flowering medium early, in Novosibirsk at the end of the 2nd to beginning of the 3rd decade of May. Ripening medium early, uniform — in the middle of the 3rd decade of July. Enters fruiting on the 3rd–4th year after planting of two-year-old saplings. Propagated by green cuttings and grafting. Lifespan of the trunk about 30 years. Self-sterile, well pollinated by other bird cherry varieties selected at CSBS. Yield 15–20 kg per tree, at planting 5 x 3 m yields 100–130 c/ha.

Tree, shoots and generative buds highly resistant to winter frosts. Flowers weakly resistant to spring frosts. Drought and heat resistance medium. Resistance to coccomycosis, clasterosporiosis, and moniliosis high. Resistance to bacterial, viral, and mycoplasma diseases not studied. Resistance to gummosis and chlorosis medium. Weakly infested by aphids, scale insects, and cherry slugs; strongly infested by bird cherry slugs and hawthorn.

Advantages of the variety: high winter hardiness, good taste and technological qualities of fruits, ease of propagation.

Disadvantages of the variety: small fruit mass, early flowering, irregular fruiting.