ASSESSMENT OF SWEET CHERRY (PRUNUS AVIUM L.) GENOTYPES GROWN IN CONDITIONS OF ROMANIAN NORTHEASTERN AREA

The soil and climate conditions in Romanian Northeastern area are favorable for cherry cultivation, but some times can occurred some calamities. The paper presents a study which during 2020 at the Research Station for Fruit Growing (N-E of Romania), using five sweet cherry genotypes as research material: ‘Van’, ‘Croma’, ‘Elaiași’, ‘HC920402’, ‘HC930208’. Observations and determinations were performed in regards to the frostdamages, the main growing and phenological stages and the physical and chemical traits of the fruit. The phenological stages were evaluated for beginning of flowering and fruit ripening (expressed in growing degree-days, GDD). For these sweet cherry cultivars, the highest values concerning the fruit’s weight have been recorded for ‘Elaiași’ (9.15 g) and ‘HC920402’ (7.7 g), while fruit’s equatorial diameter have ranged between 23.21 mm and 25.16 mm. The content of soluble dry solids (SDS) was between 14.6 and 20.2 °Brix. The proposed objective aims at introducing in the assortment the new varieties with quality fruits and their resistance to cracking, with ripening time at the extremities of the sweet cherry season.