Marble cherry ‘almost a miracle’
More testing ahead for accidental variety that features fine flavour and distinctive stripe.
By Susan McIver F
ound by chance on a West Kelowna orchard a dozen years ago, the Marble cherry continues to have a promising future.
“My uncle, Henry Paynter, noticed an odd-looking cherry on a branch of a Lapin tree,” said Brante Farrell, propagator of the variety.
He owns Westbank Harvest, which specializes in the production of pure juice from fruit grown on the family’s 10-acre orchard.
Intrigued by the unusual appearance of the cherries, Farrell and his father, Farlie Paynter, decided to graft them onto a couple of other branches of the same tree.
“I didn’t think there was much hope of stability, because it was a random chimera,” Farrell said.
But he was in for a happy surprise. Marble cherries have remained true through budding and grafting onto six generations of trees.
“It’s almost like a miracle,” Farrell said.
Currently, Marbles are grafted onto the tops of primarily Crystallina variety cherry trees grown on Mazzard rootstock.
“I’m really looking forward to doing direct Marble to rootstock trees. Also, I’d like to see how Marble develops on native rootstock,” Farrell said. Externally, the Marble cherry has a striking lustrous salmon to pink shading with a bold black stripe that runs from the base of the stem to the cherry’s apex.
“I know of other marbled cherries, but none with the black stripe,” Farrell
14 said.
The stripe is so distinctive that visitors to the orchard have asked Farrell if he drew it on each cherry with a Sharpie marker.
When the cherry is ripe, its flesh is a blend of deep red and creamy white, reflecting its ancestry of being a cross between a Lapin and a white-fleshed cherry.
“The white-fleshed ancestor was probably a numbered variety we were growing at the time, but for simplicity’s sake we say it was a Rainier,” Farrell said.
Farrell and his father grow 15 kinds of cherries, including a few different numbered varieties at any given time. Farrell plans to have genetic testing
SUSAN MCIVER
Brante Farrell examines the first blossoms of Marble cherries on the family West Kelowna orchard.
done to determine exact parentage. Overall, Marbles have Lapins’ stability and strengths without the ease of bruising of their white-fleshed ancestor. Marbles ripen around mid-to-late July, close to the same time as Lapins and have similar cropping characteristics.
They also have approximately the same sizing, depending on the application of gibberellic acid. Before investing significant time and money, Farrell decided to take his new cherry to public taste testings. The Marble cherry was the first-place winner of the annual Kelowna Cherry Fair Taste Test for three straight years. “Those wins alleviated my concerns about consumer acceptance,” he said. The Marble Cherry blends a strong robust red cherry taste with the milder flavour of the white.
British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Summer 2014
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