Fruit quality characteristics of the Bulgarian sweet cherry cultivar ‘Rozalina’

Sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) is one of the most commercially important Prunus fruit tree species grown in Bulgaria. The current study aimed to describe the fruit quality of the Bulgarian bicolor sweet cherry cultivar ‘Rozalina’. The study was conducted in 2021 and ‘Van’ and ‘Pobeda Krimska’ were used for comparison. The phenological stages flow, fruit biometric data, colorimetric analyses, fruit flesh firmness, and sensory evaluation of the studied cultivars are presented. Phenological observations show that the development of all three cultivars begins in early March. The ‘Rozalina’ cv. was the first to reach full maturity/04.06/, followed by ‘Pobeda Krimska’ /10.06/ and ‘Van’ /14.06/. Under the influence of late spring frost ‘Rozalina’ showed the lowest percentage of injured flowers. From the performed biometric measurements, it was established that the standard cultivar ‘Van’ surpasses the other two cultivars in fruit height, width, thickness, and fruit weight but ‘Rozalina’ had a better stone relative share. The Bulgarian cultivar had the highest TSS (°Brix) content and fruit flesh firmness and its fruits were highly evaluated after sensory analyses.