In California, timing is money; hence breeders are working on new, early ripening cherry varieties that withstand heat and dwindling winter chill. “The No. 1 thing what’s driving these types of varieties is they ripen in the early season,” said Glen Bradford, a partner in BQ Genetics in Le Grand, California, one of three private California breeding companies.
Early to market
Southern cherry growers and shippers can’t compete with the volumes of Oregon and Washington, so they shoot for the seasonal excitement, hitting the market ahead of the Northwest. Prices typically start high and plummet quickly.
Bing cherries were once king in the Central Valley. The Bing is still the most prevalent variety in the state, but it comprised only 40 percent of the 2015 crop volume compared with 66 percent 10 years earlier, according to the California Cherry Board.
One of the first cherries to surge in its place was the the Brooks, probably the most popular variety in the southern counties of California near Bakersfield, where winter chill is so scarce growers use overhead sprinklers to cool in December and January.
The Coral Champagne, usually just called the Coral, is another popular early variety from the University of California.
Together, the Brooks and Coral accounted for one-third of the state’s cherry crop in 2015.
Cherries are a relatively small crop in California with roughly 40,000 acres compared with millions of acres of grapes and nuts.
In 2000, Bradford introduced the Glenred variety, which skyrocketed in popularity under the trade name Sequoia. Warmerdam Packing near Tulare, which has exclusive packing rights, produced 257,000 18-pound boxes in 2015, 23 times the volume of 2005.
Since then, he has released three more commercial varieties, the Arvin Glen, the Early Glen and the Glen Heart, all with varying improvements over the Sequoia. Warmerdam has exclusive rights to those, too.
Cherries year-round?
Some growers near Stockton, where 70 percent of the state’s crop is produced, think these new varieties may slow what has been the industry’s steady march to the south, where intense summer heat causes the buds to double postharvest.
That doesn’t mean the southward movement will halt, though.
Cherries are narrowly adapted, said David Cain, general manager of International Fruit Genetics, meaning most varieties will perform their best in a specific climate.
Untapped areas lie still farther south, even into Mexico, and he is trying to breed varieties that will work there. He suspects that trend to continue until the market can be filled year-round with fresh cherries grown in both hemispheres.
“There’s a three-week period where there are no cherries in the world, and we’re trying to fill that gap,” said Cain, who started his business in 2001 after collecting start wood from all over the world.
Cain has three varieties nearing a patent, he said, but has applied for only one, the Oh-So-Grand. He expects it to ripen about three days ahead of the Brooks, with about the same chilling level but larger fruit and darker flesh.
