So there is a new ‘Musketeer’ series being released by University of Sask… I cannot find much information on it but this was posted in my facebook group dedicated to sour cherries, by one of the employees at U of S…
This is his post
"I am not saying don’t do it but be aware. I have seen people talking about whether the sour cherry will come true to seed. They will not, not by a long shot.
First they come from hybrids of prunus fructosa x Prunus cerasus and are the results from outcrosses so genetic diversity is very high.
These are tetraploid species that means instead of having 2 sets of chromosomes they have 4 which makes a huge difference in the variation you will see. I made a punnett square to show you the variation you can expect from a selfed tetraploid plant on one gene. That is 19 variations (genotypes). Keeping in mind the millions that are there. In a diploid 2 set species, you would see 3 genotypes all dominant, all recessive, and 1 of each.
Seed varieties of most crops are crossed and then selfed 7-9 times to get them true to seed. Every time you self reduce genetic variability by 50%. f1 50% loss, F2 75%, f3 87.5%, F4 93.73%, F5 96.855 F6 98.4275, F7 99.21375. (This also works for people having kids if you have 7 kids 99% of your genetics moves on into the next round lol. Actually though if you are trying to integrate a novel gene or hybridize you only really need 10 plants in the F1 to make sure you have 100% of the genetics.)!
The whole chart was based on self-pollinated seed. That is what you will end up with. If it was from a crossed source, assuming all alleles were different there would be 144 combinations in a tetraploid. Also, have you heard of D’Artagnan? We just released it to the propagators as part of our Musketeer series…"
Ive tried looking on several search engines and have found NO information regarding these new cherries, either they are a well kept secret or my searching skills suck…
This was from Aug 2018. It’s the only info I could find. Never heard of this before- good find! You might have to contact U of Sask directly to get more info.
“The next project for the U of S Dwarf Sour Cherry Breeding Program is a new Musketeer series of fruit that is being developed with European markets in mind, Bors said. “There’s one called d’Artagnan that is designed for a certain type of sideways harvester used in Europe for black currants and by Saskatoon berry growers in Canada. The branches on that variety tend to stay small, thin and flexible for a long time, so it will go a decade before its branches need pruning.” No release date is available yet.“
Wow good stuff! The guy is right on about crossing but so what? I would try anyway. I’m not that interested in breeding cherries although I thought of crossing Wowza with Juliet. Good info on ploidy level! So 4x is typical of all sour cherries so these can be crossed with any sour cherry very easily.
I’ve seen Athos, one of the other Musketeer cherries, for sale online in Europe, but not Porthos or D’Artagnan, the other Musketeers, yet. I’ve got all the USask Romance cherries except Valentine, and they do fine here in interior Alaska. I also have a couple of the earlier Kerr crosses referenced in the Good Fruit Grower article cited above, which have produced for decades now and spread to about a thousand square foot area via suckering. D’Artagnan sounds interesting because it’s reputedly short and suckers readily, lending itself to a cherry hedge that could be insulated by snow (which is basically how the Kerr crosses behave, but their fruit is smaller and not as sweet): http://glexpo.org/summaries/2017summaries/TartCherry.pdf
With all the crosses they do, I wonder if theyve come across anything that would be an improvement for non commercial, or you pick markets. Im thinking bigger and sweeter (less tart) and more firm. Seems they are solidly focused on commercial and machine harvesting, I hope theyd consider releasing something that would fit the category Im interested in, if they come across it…
It would be great to hear about Wowza the one gurneys? or one of the other larger nurseries bought and TMd my understanding is that one was better for homeowners / BYO because of less production but was very reliable from what the advertising was selling us. To me it seems like they are just waiting for people to buy or partner with them for release.
Gurneys may release more cherries from Canada as in a statement from the university of Sas. They mention giving some unreleased/unnamed cultivars to Gurney’s. Well actually Gardens Alive which owns Gurneys. Wowza was just the first one. I planted mine two years ago but in September of 2019 I accidentally ran over it with the lawn mower! It grew back last year but I lost a year!
Yep look at that- two of the varieties are for sale. I want them! I didn’t see the third one for sale. It’s pretty crazy to look at all the fruit varieties available in Europe (many names never heard of before). I wonder why these won’t be sold in the US- would it hurt the romance series bush sales?
Here is good info on ‘Porthos’ and from the same pages you will find (with search)the others.
“Canadian Food Inspection Agency - Porthos” Canadian Food Inspection Agency - Porthos
Here in Finland they have been sold for at least two years, I bought Athos and Porthos. Many times I was on the verge of starting a conversation here, but never did…because I believed that if nobody here talks about those, they must not be real even, hehe
that’s interesting there is no information on u if s site if they have been around for that long, maybe a secret project… have you gotten any fruit yet?
Nope, I planted them last spring. I have wondered why only Europe has them. I remember Bob Bors mentioning somewhere that the European peoples taste for cherries is somewhat differenr than North- American…could they be made specifically for the old continent?
My montmorency cherries have made many seedlings. Most have tasted good, some maybe even better than Montmorency, but none of them have come anywhere close to its production. It’s like Jubileum. I don’t care if they taste good, if I get 1/20th the production. The space has a value. More cherries, better for me.
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