Published in Scientific Papers. Series B, Horticulture, Vol. LXIV, Issue 2
Written by Marieta NESHEVA, Valentina BOZHKOVA
Plum is a traditional fruit crop grown in Bulgaria. Fruit Growing Institute has launched its plum breeding program in 1987 in order to improve the range of available plum cultivars for this region. In 2019 were registered two new plum cultivars - 'Sirma’ and 'Pagane’. In this study are presented their main tree and fruit characteristics observed from 2014 to 2018. The standard cultivar 'Stanley’ was used for comparison. The flower development of all three cultivars starts in the third decade of March. 'Sirma’ had a moderately early flowering period which starts 2-3 days before 'Stanley’. 'Sirma’ outperforms the standard cultivar in yield – 170.30 kg per tree (from 7 years old, not pruned trees) and average fruit weight of 44.70 g. Compared to 'Stanley’, 'Pagane’ had lower yield (78 kg/per tree) but much larger fruits with an average weight of 63.68 g. After sensory evaluation, both cultivars had higher marks than 'Stanley’ and their taste qualities were rated as very good. 'Sirma’ cv. had a smaller tree size. Between 'Stanley’ and 'Pagane’ was not observed significant difference for their tree dimensions. The new cultivars are tolerant to Sharka like 'Stanley’.
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