Description
Book SynopsisThe sweet cherry is one of the most popular of temperate fruit crops with consumers and is grown commercially in more than 40 countries of the world, in temperate, Mediterranean, subtropical and arid regions of all continents. The sour cherry is cultivated in fewer countries, mainly in Europe and the USA, and is used mainly in processed cherry products. Until recently, horticultural improvement of cherries as a commercial crop has been slow, and major production problems such as bird damage, rain-induced cracking, and bacterial diseases, have remained. However, in the last 25 years, major developments have occurred. New improved varieties of sweet cherry have been bred which have larger fruit, are more disease resistant and set fruit more reliably. Improved sour cherry varieties have also been bred and mechanised systems of harvesting introduced. New dwarfing rootstocks are now being released. This book provides a comprehensive review of all of these topics, and many more. It covers al
Table of ContentsPart One: Introduction 1: The taxonomic classification of sweet and sour cherries and a brief history of their cultivation, A D Webster 2: World distribution of sweet and sour cherry production: national statistics, A D Webster and N E Looney Part Two: Plant Materials 3: Sweet cherry scions: characteristics of principal commercial cultivars, breeding objectives and methods, G Bargioni 4: Sour cherries cultivars: objectives and methods of fruit breeding and characteristics of principal commercial cultivars, A Iezzoni 5: Rootstocks for sweet and sour cherries, A D Webster and H Schmidt Part Three: Crop Physiology and Husbandry 6: Propagation of sweet and sour cherries, A D Webster 7: Selection of the orchard site, orchard planning and establishment, M Longstroth and R L Perry 8: Flowering , pollination and fruit set, M Thompson 9: Cherry nutrient requirements and water relations, E J Hanson and E L Proebsting 10: Tree canopy management and the orchard environment, principles and practices of pruning and training, J A Flore and C D Kesner 11: Principles and practice of plant bioregulator usage in cherry production, N E Looney 12: Rain-induced cracking of sweet cherries; its causes and prevention, J Vittrup Christensen Part Four: Crop Protection 13: Orchard floor vegetation management, E J Hogue and N E Looney 14: Cherry diseases: their prevention and control, G I Mink and A L Jones 15: Management and control of insect and mite pests of cherry, J F Brunner 16: Sweet cherries: protection of fruit from bird and rain damage, D Pennell and A D Webster Part Five: Harvesting, Handling and Utilization 17: Harvesting and handling of sweet cherries for the fresh market, N E Looney, A D Webster and E M Kupferman 18: Harvesting and handling sour and sweet cherries for processing, G K Brown and G Kollar 19: Cherry processing, K Kaack, S E Spayd and S R Drake 20: Index
