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Breeders: Sandor Brozik and Mrs. Erika Apostol

Owner: Research Institute for Fruit Growing and Ornamentals, Erd, Hungary

History in the U.S.: Introduced to the U.S. in 1995 to the Plant Quarantine Center, Beltsville, MD, by Prof. Amy Iezzoni. Upon its release, it has been tested in Michigan.  Decision to commercialize made in 2013 in consultation with the Hungarians. Budwood of ‘Linda’ was sent to the Clean Plant Network Fruit Trees in Feb. 2013 to provide virus certified budwood for U.S. nurseries.

Description: Suitable for fresh market and freezing. Maturity time is similar to ‘Hedelfingen’ and ‘Attika’ (‘Kordia’).  Harvests well by both hand and machine. The yields are high and consistent. Fruits keep firm on the tree for a long time.  Well adapted to the Michigan climate, e.g. exhibited less bacterial canker than other sweet cherry varieties in 2012. Self-sterile, S3S12 with a mid-bloom time (Fig. 1).  Fruit is 27 – 27 mm in diameter (Hungarian data). See Table 1 for data from MSU CRC.  The skin is dark purplish-red in optimum maturity (Fig. 1(B)). Excellent taste. 

Fig.1 (A) Linda (right) and Emperor Francis (left) branches on May 3, 2013. (B) ‘Linda’ fruit in 2013.  Both pictures were taken  at MSU’s Clarksville Experiment Station, Clarksville, MI.

Table 1. Data averaged from 2006-2013 of Linda sweet cherry planted at Michigan State University’s Clarksville Experiment Station, Clarksville, MI.

aCrop load rating scale is 0=no crop; 5=50% crop; 10=full crop

Patent Status:

Patent protected

Licensing Rights Available:

Non-exclusive rights available

Tech ID: TEC2014-0092