SEPTEMBER 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC The “S” Team


Summerland’s cherry breeding program an international success


by TOM WALKER SUMMERLAND – Cherries


are a top-value crop that is helping to strengthen the BC tree fruit industry. A local breeding program that is well- know around the world can take a lot of credit for that success. Agriculture and Agri-Food


Canada established a sweet cherry breeding program at Summerland in 1936. It’s a good thing it’s been around that long because it can take more than 25 years to cross, plant, grow, test, evaluate and develop a new cultivar before releasing it to growers. Objectives for the program


have increased in sophistication with each newly released cultivar. Fruit size and quality (firmness and taste, including sweetness and acidity), colour, resistance to rain-induced cracking, stem retention, resistance to diseases, growing characteristics, timing of harvest, and an ability to hold up during packing, storage and shipping are all important considerations. “What we release now must be much better than the existing varieties in every way,” explains Amritpal Singh, the current tree fruit breeding specialist at AAFC Summerland. “We compare it with the performance of the existing commercial varieties.” “We start with an average of 1,000 new hybridized seedlings every year,” says Singh. “Less than 1% of them have all or most of the desired traits and are ever considered for further development.” Consistent collaboration with local growers has always been a key. Researchers and growers share expertise and


growers test-plant varieties in addition to the work done in the AAFC test orchards. The first release from Summerland was the Van cherry in 1944, but it was work with self–fertile varieties that built the success of the Summerland program. Stella was introduced in 1968. “It was the first of the ‘S for Summerland’ varieties,” explains Frank Kappel. Stella changed the way orchards were planted, as growers no longer needed to include pollinator trees and it formed a key base for the Summerland breeding program. Self-fertile cherries also produce a more consistent crop from year to year. “The program began to


focus on breeding out of the rain,” explains Richard MacDonald. June rains in the Okanagan valley can split ripening cherries. Growers will spend thousands of dollars drying wet fruit on the trees using wind machines and helicopters and still may lose entire blocks. “It doesn’t rain at the end of


July,” says MacDonald. The Lapins cultivar (a Stella cross) developed by Summerland breeder Karl Lapins and released in 1984, is typically harvested around the last week of July. Lapins are a large sweet


cherry that became the backbone of the BC industry. Traditionally, Okanagan harvest began the last week of June and continued to the middle of July. Now growers could have fruit in the marketplace for a longer period, had a better chance to avoid crop losses from the rain, were able to retain staff for a longer season and could begin to market cherries into


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The ‘S’ Cherry Team: Dr. David Lane, researcher 1974-1994; Richard MacDonald, technician 1978-2011; Dr. Cheryl Hampson, researcher 2011-2017; Dr. Frank Kappel, researcher 1994-2011; Chris Pagliocchini, 2011- present; and Dr. Amrit Singh, researcher 2017-present. TOM WALKER PHOTO


the US after that harvest had finished. “The Lapins cherry really lit


a fire under the industry,” recalls Dr. David Lane. “Buyers liked it and growers got higher prices for it.” Next, breeders took on the


destructive rains. Sonnet, Santina and Satin are early ripening varieties that have been bred for resistance to splitting. Sweetheart, followed by Staccato, ripen in the later part of the harvest cycle after Lapins. The most recent


releases, Sovereign and Sentennial, extend harvest dates till late August and into the beginning of September. While breeding varieties that will be successful in BC has always been the intent of the program, and the majority of cherries grown in the province are Summerland- bred varieties, there are significant international spin- offs. Kappel and MacDonald


recount weekly visits from international growers during


their tenure in the 1990s. “I had a grower from Chile call us the cathedral of cherry breeding,” says Cheryl Hampson. Cultivar trials have been run in other countries. All of the team say


international collaboration is an essential part of the process.


Those visitors liked what


they saw. “S” cultivar cherries are now grown throughout the cherry world and make up to 70% of plantings in the US, Europe, Chile.


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