This invention is a new and distinct variety of sweet cherry tree denominated ‘IFG Cher-six’. The new sweet cherry tree ‘IFG Cher-six’ is characterized by producing large size blushed fruits having a reniform shape. The ‘IFG Cher-six’ has medium firm, medium acid fruit with a good eating quality ripening in mid-season. Fruits are moderately tolerant of rain induced cracking. The tree has a medium-low chilling requirement, produces few doubled and spurred fruits and ripens seven to ten days before the ‘Rainier’ variety.
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Latin name of the genus and species claimed: Prunus avium.
Variety denomination: ‘IFG Cher-six’.
The new and distinct cherry tree described and claimed herein originated from hand pollinating the ‘Tulare’ variety (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,407) with pollen of an unidentified early blooming sweet cherry. The hybridization was done in May 2001 in a commercial orchard near Delano, Kern County, Calif. The resulting seeds were collected in May 2001 and were stratified, germinated and the resulting 545 seedlings were planted in a field near Delano, Kern County, Calif. in April 2002. The present variety of sweet cherry tree was selected as a single plant in May 2007 and was first asexually propagated in January 2009 by grafting onto Prunus mahalab rootstock. These propagules were found to reproduce true-to-type by asexual propagation. All propagation was done near Delano, Kern County Calif.
Sweet cherries have traditionally been grown in climates with long cold winters and cool to moderately warm summers. Such climates provide enough cold winter temperatures to allow normal growth to resume in the spring and summer temperatures that are low enough not to induce production of unmarketable double or spurred fruit, but it limits the seasonality that cherries are available. The sweet cherry breeding program focuses on developing types of cherries that will grow in regions with low winter chilling and high summer temperatures so that the fruit will ripen before fruit in traditional growing regions.
The new sweet cherry tree ‘IFG Cher-six’ is characterized by producing large size blushed fruits having a reniform shape. The ‘IFG Cher-six’ has medium firm, medium acid fruit with a good eating quality ripening in early season. Fruits are moderately tolerant of rain induced cracking. The tree has a medium-low chilling requirement, slightly lower than the ‘Brooks’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,676); about 400 to 500 chill hours, and lower than the ‘Rainier’ (non-patented); about 700 chill hours. It produces fewer doubled and spurred fruits as compared to the ‘Brooks’ and ‘Rainier’ varieties in high summer temperature regions such as the Southern San Joaquin Valley of California. Fruits of ‘IFG Cher-six’ have medium long, medium thick stems that remain attached and stay green during storage and shipping.
In comparison to the ‘Rainier’ variety, which is the major blush variety grown in the USA, the present variety ripens about seven to ten days earlier and about the same as the ‘Brooks’ variety. In comparison to ‘Tulare’, its female parent, the present variety has fruits that have yellow flesh and yellow skin covered with a bright red blush over 50 to 80 percent of its surface as opposed to red flesh and skin color of the female parent. Fruits of ‘IFG Cher-six’ are larger than those of the ‘Tulare’ variety.
The accompanying photographic drawing in
An actively growing shoot tip collected at harvest can be seen in the upper portion of the drawing.
Typical mature fruit, fruit in cross section and cleaned and dried fruit pits are displayed in the lower half of the drawing.
Throughout this specification, color names beginning with a small letter signify that the name of that color, as used in common speech, is aptly descriptive. Color names beginning with a capital letter designate values based upon R.H.S. Colour Chart, published in 2001 by The Royal Horticultural Society, London, England.
Throughout this specification subjective description values conform to those set forth by the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR) ‘Cherry Descriptor List’ (Prunus spp.) (1985) which was developed with full support from the Commission of the European Communities (CEC) Programme Committee for Plant Disease Resistance Breeding and the Use of Genebanks.
The descriptive matter which follows pertains to ‘IFG Cher-six’ plants grown in the vicinity of Delano, Kern County, Calif. during 2016, and is believed to apply to plants of the variety grown under similar conditions of soil and climate elsewhere:
| Patent | Priority | Assignee | Title |
| Patent | Priority | Assignee | Title |
| PP6407, | Feb 09 1987 | Cherry tree, "Tulare" |
| Executed on | Assignor | Assignee | Conveyance | Frame | Reel | Doc |
| Jan 01 2001 | INTERNATIONAL FRUIT GENETICS, LLC | CAIN, DAVID W | CONTRACT | 059010 | /0094 | |
| Mar 16 2017 | CAIN, DAVID W | INTERNATIONAL FRUIT GENETICS, LLC | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 055167 | /0263 | |
| Mar 21 2017 | INTERNATIONAL FRUIT GENETICS, LLC | (assignment on the face of the patent) | / | |||
| Mar 02 2022 | INTERNATIONAL FRUIT GENETICS, LLC | BLOOM FRESH INTERNATIONAL LIMITED | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 064686 | /0842 |
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