Melitopol Black

Selected at the Institute of Irrigated Horticulture named after M.F. Sidorenko of UAAN among seedlings of French Black from open pollination. Breeder M.T. Oratovsky. Introduced into the State Register in 1977 for the North Caucasus region.

Tree large, fast-growing. Crown wide-rounded, raised, dense. Bark on trunk and scaffold branches gray-brown. Angle of scaffold branch divergence 54-62°. Good branching ability. Shoots straight, yellowish-green-gray. Buds large, oval, 7 mm long. Good leafing. Leaf large, broadly egg-shaped, 16.0 x 9.5 cm. Leaf margin doubly toothed. Petiole thick, 40 mm long. Stipules large, oval, colored, arranged in 2-3.

Fruits large, single-ribbed, average weight 6-8 g, round-oval, dark red, nearly black. Fruit apex rounded, base with depression. Pit small, broad. Stomach suture small, barely noticeable. Pedicel 45-49 mm long, medium thickness, easily separates from branch. Attachment to pit is weak, dry detachment from fruit. Skin thin, dense, dark-red, nearly black at full ripeness, shiny, easily separates from flesh. Numerous subcutaneous dots, gray, barely noticeable. Flesh dark-red, dense, cartilaginous, juicy. Juice dark-red. Pit small, round, free. Flavor sweet with pleasant acidity. Immature fruits have a bitter taste characteristic of the original form — French Black. Fruits contain 18.2% dry matter, 13.3% sugars, and 0.71% acid. Sensory rating 4.4 points. Distinguished by transportability and versatility.

Self-sterile. Best pollinators — Cosmic, Kurortnaya, Surprise, Franz Joseph, Bigarro Oratovsky, Daiber Black, Large-fruited. Average multi-year date of flowering onset — April 24. In Melitopol, fruits ripen from June 17 to June 24. Grafted trees enter fruiting at 4 years and rapidly increase yield. Average yield of the variety at 16 years old is 78.0 kg per tree.

Resistant to moniliosis. High winter hardiness. During severe winter, when air temperature dropped to -25.1°C, the average frost damage score for trees reached 0.44, and bud death in buds reached 40.5%. During spring frosts, flower stamen death reached 52%. The variety exhibits moderate growth and good branching of seedlings in nurseries.

Advantages: high commercial and flavor qualities of fruits, high productivity and transportability.

Disadvantages: large plant habit.