Cherry variety: PA1UNIBO* Sweet Aryana™

PA1UNIBO* Sweet Aryana^® is one of the 7 varieties of sweet cherry belonging to the “Sweet” series. These varieties come from a breeding programme which began in the early 2000s at the Department of Tree Crops (now the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences) at the Alma Mater Studiorum, with a precise “target”, i.e. to obtain six or seven varieties that could cover a harvesting period of at least 30-40 days, all with a “maximum” common denominator: fruits with excellent appearance, easily recognisable organoleptic qualities, obtained from trees with high agronomic performance and productivity.

• Tree: high vigour with open canopy, good branching, standard bearing habit. Production mainly on the shoots and flowering buds at the base of the one-year old branches.
• Flowering: early, usually 2-3 days before Burlat. Self-fertile; allelic profile: S3S4’; incompatibility group SC/O. Recommended pollinators: PA3UNIBO* Sweet Gabriel™ and PA5UNIBO* Sweet Saretta™.
• Time of maturity: early and uniform; harvesting begins 3 to 5 days after Burlat depending on the year (the same period as Early Star® Panaro 2*); the excellent ripening resistance on the plant ensures a harvesting window of over 10 days.
• Fruit: medium-large size (dominant calibre: 28 mm; average weight 11-12g), cordiform-depressed, symmetrical, attractive. Medium-thin skin, dark red shiny colour (scale 5 CTIFL code) covering the whole surface, tending to dark red-black and shiny when fully ripe (scale 6 CTIFL code). Surface suture line. Red flesh with an excellent consistency, fleshy, juicy and very aromatic, good quality, very sweet, good acidity content. Stalk of intermediate length and thickness. Medium small, freestone pit.
• Agronomic evaluation: very early fruiting, both on weak (II-III year after planting out) and vigorous rootstocks (III-IV year); constantly high cropping. In years with heavy rainfall, the fruits have medium-high susceptibility to splitting, with localised damage mostly at the top and bottom.

Patents and Trade Marks:

• Community plant variety right application (EU plant variety rights, c/o CPVO) no. 2012/1157 held by Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna.
• Plant Patent application (US patent, c/o USPTO) no. 13/986702 held by Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna; Varietal denomination PA1UNIBO*.
• EU trade mark Sweet Aryana® no. 11058559/2012 filed by the University of Bologna.

Licences:

European Union

• Italy: Salvi Vivai, Top Plant Vivai, Vivai Fortunato and Vivai Spinelli (co-esclusivity)
• Greece: Vitro Hellas 
• Spain: Tecniplant 2010 S.L. 
• Czech Republic: Fytos  
• Belgium: DEPA-Fruit 
• France: IFO 

Extra-EU: 

• Turkey: Parlar 
• Chile: ANA  
• South Africa: Stargrow 
• Australia: Graham's Factree (Multiplication agreeement); The Austral (Commercialization agreement)
• New Zealand: Innovar (Evaluation&Option Agreement)
• USA: Innovar (Evaluation&Option Agreement)

• Lugli S., Correale R., Grandi M., 2012. Serie Sweet: belle fuori, buone dentro. Sweet Series: beauties outside, delights inside. Frutticoltura - Supplement to no. 11-2012: 1-17.
• Lugli S., 2013. Sweet, delicious new cherries from Bologna University Sweet, la dolcezza delle ciliegie targate Unibo. Fresh Point Magazine. n. 4-2013: 50-55.
• Lugli S., Correale R., Grandi M., 2013. La nuova serie Sweet: primi risultati agronomici e qualitativi. Frutticoltura. n. 4-2013: 12-19.
• Lugli S., Correale R., Grandi M., 2014. Modificazioni nella qualità dei frutti in varietà della serie Sweet. Frutticoltura. n. 4-2014: 30-32