The Ulster cherry is a sweet

cherry A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

(''

Prunus avium ''Prunus avium'', commonly called wild cherry, sweet cherry, gean, or bird cherryWorld Economic Plants: A Standard Reference, Second Edition'. CRC Press; 19 April 2016. . p. 833–. is a species of cherry, a flowering plant in the rose family, ...

'') that originated in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

History

The 'Ulster' cherry was created through an agricultural breeding program at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...

in 1937, and was first introduced in 1964.“Cherries from Cornell Cherry Breeding Program,” Cornell University, May 2000
/ref> It derives from the crossing of the 'Schmidt' cherry (a mid-season cultivar that produces a dark red, moderately large fruit of a good quality and superior crack resistance) and the 'Lambert' cherry (a heart-shaped cultivar with dark red and moderately firm flesh and a sweet flavor). The 'Ulster' cherry is named after

Ulster County, New York Ulster County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston. The county is named after the Irish province of Ulster. History ...

, a region that is home to commercial sweet cherry production. It is grown across

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and has been successfully introduced in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The cultivar can be produced in harsh climates: when

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

launched its sweet cherry commercial production, the cultivar was imported for planting in that nation's

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...

district, located at latitude 60°N.

Characteristics

The 'Ulster' cherry is a midseason cultivar. The dark red fruit is firm and large, sometimes measuring more than one inch in diameter. Its fruit has a strong resistance to cracking brought about by pre-harvest rains, and the trees growing the Ulster cherry have been documented as showing a higher resistance to southwest trunk winter injury,

cherry leaf spot Cherry leaf spot is a fungal disease which infects cherries and plums. Sweet, sour, and ornamental cherries are susceptible to the disease, being most prevalent in sour cherries. The variety of sour cherries that is the most susceptible are t ...

and the late spring frosts that can prove fatal to this cultivar . Cracking can be high on some young trees, but the level of cracking declines as the trees mature.

Usage

The 'Ulster' cherry’s sweet taste has made it popular in several formats. It can be consumed as freshly picked fruit, and it is also used in canned cherries products. It has also been incorporated into wine production. The Peninsula Cellars Melange, created by

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

’s Peninsula Cellars wine from a mixture of fermented sweet black 'Ulster' cherry juice and pure grape brandy, won the Best of Show Award at the 1998

Michigan State Fair The Michigan State Fair is an annual event originally held from 1849 to 2009 in Detroit, the state's largest city. In 2009 the governor declined to fund it because of other priorities. Because agriculture still has a major place in the Michigan ec ...

.“It's a natural for Michigan to make cherry wine,” Detroit News, July 26, 2001
/ref>

References

External links

{{Cherries Cherry cultivars