Assessment of Morphological and Pomological Variation of some Selected Iranian Sour Cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) Genotypes

Iran is a rich source of high diversity in sour cherry trees. In the direction of breeding programs of sour cherry, this study was carried out with the aim of evaluating and comparing the genetic variability of some selected Iranian sour cherry genotypes with foreign commercial cultivars and better recognizing of their characteristics in order to achieve proper rootstocks and cultivars. Fifty three qualitative and quantitative characteristics related to vegetative sections of tree, flower, leaf and fruit of these genotypes were investigated during 2011 and 2012. The results showed that genotype had significant effect on the studied characteristics and there were significant differences among genotypes in terms of these characteristics. Principle component analysis located the studied characters in five components that explained 81.32% of the total variability observed. Cluster analysis divided genotypes into three clusters in which selected Iranian sour cherry genotypes were separated from foreign cultivars. According to the results, genotypes KaThLa3Ge23, KaTaJo2Ge9 and KaThLaSSGe21 had better growth properties than other genotypes and were superior in terms of properties such as high vigor, yield, fruit weight and redness than foreign cultivars. Therefore, these genotypes can be considered as promising genotypes for further evaluations of sour cherry breeding programs.