Cherry production and research in Zhejiang Province, the warm winter and hot summer area in China

Abstract

There are Chinese cherry and sweet cherry planted in Zhejiang Province, China. Chinese cherry (Prunus pseudocerasus L.) has been planted for many years. The industry is one of the smallest in the whole fruit industry in Zhejiang. The total acreage is 50,000 mu (=3333.3 ha), and the annual output is 13,000 t. But the average value mu(-1) which is about 20 to 30,000 Yuan is reasonably relatively high. The researches were concentrated on cultivars selection and orchard management. New selection ‘Zijing’ was selected from a landrace. The cultivation time of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) is much shorter than that of Chinese cherry in Zhejiang province. Growers and researchers try their best to plant sweet cherry because of their high average value even if the climate is not good enough for sweet cherry, such as a winter not being cold enough and summer being too hot and too wet. The researches were concentrated on cultivar selection which was adapted to Zhejiang’s climate, and technology set points to optimize growing condition effectively. The new marked improvement in Zhejiang sweet cherry production was growing economic yields in the last 3 years. In order to get economic yields, the new research improvement was obtained: 1) at least four cultivars were proven suitable for Zhejiang from the test on introduction and domestication in the combination of orchard management; 2) the combination of plant technology for sweet cherry was got a patent right in China; 3) the new selection ‘Jiangnanhong’, which comes from ‘Hongdeng’ × ‘Lapins’, got cultivar identification in Zhejiang Province. Anticipation of the cherry future in the warm winter and hot summer regions is also introduced in the article.