CORRELATION BETWEEN SWEET CHERRY QUALITY TRAITS AND FRUIT CRACKING INDEX AT THREE ROMANIAN VARIETIES

Cracking in sweet cherry is often mentioned as a serious problem in many commercial orchards. Research was conducted on reducing the phenomenon of cracking and keeping in mind that cheap, easily accessible, effective solutions for farmers in the specific climatic conditions of our country, is of particular importance. Fruit quality is the target of every farmer. In an attempt to obtain higher quality fruit, it is possible that sometimes, especially if significant rainfall occurs during the ripening period, producers neglect the cracking susceptibility of their varieties. In 2023 we evaluated three Romanian sweet cherry cultivars from the perspective of fruits quality parameters as follows: weight, firmness, pH, total soluble solids, colour. `Special`, `Tentant`and `Severin` cvs. grafted on `IP-C8` rootstock have been quantitatively assessed by the cracking index. `Severin` recorded the largest fruits while `Special` registered the highest content of total soluble solids and these traits represent ones of the most important quality attributes in relation with the intensity of sweet cherry fruit cracking.