Researchers at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Summerland Research and Development Centre in British Columbia are working on methods to reduce the time required to develop new cherry varieties.
Research scientist Dr. Letitia Da Ros said breeding new cherry varieties can take about 30 years. The program aims to shorten this timeline so growers in British Columbia can access varieties that perform under changing weather conditions.
"With any crops that humans grow, we've really focused on yield and disease resistance," she said. "As we see a lot of changing and shifting weather patterns, we've begun to focus more on the stability of production and varying weather conditions."
Developing new varieties requires crossing existing cultivars, growing the resulting plants, evaluating fruit quality, and testing performance in orchard conditions before they are released to growers.
Da Ros said the research approach focuses on two areas. The program is working on breeding cherry varieties that flower earlier and perform under varying weather conditions. At the same time, researchers are studying genetic markers to determine whether it is possible to predict how varieties will perform in temperature extremes without completing the full testing cycle.
"We'd like to always have how we can help you now and in the future, so that we get that benefit as soon as we can," she said. "We can shorten it from 30 to 10 years, but we also want to be able to help with that information before the 10 years are up."
British Columbia produces 95% of Canada's cherries. In 2024, Canada exported more than 1,000 tons of cherries valued at more than US$12 million.
Cherry breeding programs in Summerland have been operating for about 100 years. According to Da Ros, varieties developed through the program are grown in multiple production regions and generate royalties as intellectual property. A total of 36 cherry varieties developed in Canada are currently grown worldwide.
"We actually have a hundred-year-old apple and sweet cherry breeding programs that have been running, and the germplasm that comes from here with our industry partners actually supplies a large proportion of the sweet cherries that are grown across the world," she said.
Funding for the project is provided by Genome BC, a not-for-profit organization that has attracted more than US$1.1 billion in investments and supported more than 600 genome projects over 25 years.
Da Ros said information from growers about orchard conditions and production challenges helps guide research priorities.
"If you get out there, have your voice heard there, then we'll know about it and be able to try and provide solutions around that," she said.
Source: iNFO News
