Cherry variety: PA3UNIBO* Sweet Gabriel™

PA3UNIBO* Sweet Gabriel® 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: medium-early, usually together with Burlat. Self-compatible; allelic profile: S1S4; incompatibility group IX (incompatible with Chinook, Garnet, Viscount, Firm Red® Marim*, Rainier, Sylvia). Recommended pollinators: PA1UNIBO* Sweet Aryana®, PA2UNIBO* Sweet Lorenz®, PA4UNIBO* Sweet Valina®, PA5UNIBO* Sweet Saretta®.
• Time of maturity: intermediate and uniform; harvesting starts 14 to 16 days after Burlat depending on the year (a few days after Giorgia, Summit and Black Star* period). The excellent ripening resistance on the plant ensures a harvesting window of over 10 days.
• Fruit: large size (dominant calibre: 30-32 mm; average weight 12-14 g), cordiform, symmetrical, attractive. Medium thick skin, red shiny colour (scale 4 CTIFL code) covering the whole surface, tending to dark red-purple and shiny when fully ripe (scale 5-6 CTIFL code). Surface suture line. Pink flesh with an excellent consistency, fleshy, juicy and very aromatic, high quality, very sweet, good acidity content. The main quali-quantitative parameters are given in tables 2 and 3. The sensory profile of the variety is given in figure 2 and in table 5. Stalk of intermediate length and thickness. Medium freestone pit.
• Agronomic evaluation: very early fruiting, already in the second year after planting; constantly high cropping. Currently being tested on semi-vigorous (CAB 6P) and vigorous plants (Colt). In years with heavy rainfall, the fruits have medium-high susceptibility to splitting, with localised damage mostly at the top.

Patents and Trade Marks:

• Community plant variety right application (EU plant variety rights, c/o CPVO) no. 2012/1159 held by Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna. Varietal denomination PA3UNIBO*.
• Community plant variety right application (US patent, c/o USPTO) no. 13/986703 held by Alma Mater Studiorum-University of Bologna.
• EU trade mark Sweet Gabriel® no. 11051786/2012 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