Science and Technology for Canadians

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Summary

Did Marlon Brando have a mouthful of cherries when he shouted, "Stella!" in A Streetcar Named Desire? Nope, but Stella the sweet cherry wouldn't have had much use for him, either: she's self-pollinating. Developed in the 1950s & '60s by Karl Lapins, a government scientist in B.C.'s Okanagan valley, the Stella variety transformed the sweet cherry industry by becoming the world's first self-fertile variety with high-quality fruit. This meant that growers no longer had to devote at least 10 per cent of their orchards to trees just for their pollen -- orchard drones, if you will. Stella's been pretty much retired by now, but the self-fertile gene from the grand old dame lives on in cherry orchards around the world. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientists continue the work pioneered by Karl Lapins with varieties such as Sweetheart and Staccato, and one named in honour of Lapins himself.

Transcript of Video

Narrator
In 1956 at the Summerland Experimental Station in BC's Okanagan Valley, Karl Lapins cross-pollinated cherry blossoms with a special pollen from England. This pollen had a mutated gene... and that one mutant gene would change cherry growing in Canada forever.

The genetic mutation in the pollen resulted in self-fertility in its offspring. Instead of needing another tree to fertilize it, the self-fertile cherry could pollinate its own flowers and make fruit.

Dr. Frank Kappel
Karl Lapins has had a huge impact on the cherry industry around the world with the introduction of the self-fertile cherry variety.

Narrator
In 1968, Karl Lapins named the new variety Stella. The first cherry in the world to be both self-fertile and good enough to eat, Stella proved to be a boon for growers.

Dr. Frank Kappel
With the introduction of self-fertility, that has allowed growers to change the way they run their orchards. Before that, other varieties were needed for cross-pollination. You needed at least 10 percent of your orchard in another variety which could be a variety that wasn't even harvested because of the inferior fruit quality, when all you needed it for was as a source of pollen. But now with self-fertile varieties you could have large blocks of one cherry variety.

Narrator
Over time, as bigger and better cherries were bred, Stella became less popular with growers. But the variety's self-fertility gene lives on in the cherry orchards of the world.

Dr. Frank Kappel
The self-fertility that's now found in other cherry varieties that come from our breeding program or other breeding programs around the world come from Stella or descendents of Stella. So the main impact that Stella has had is providing the self-fertility to any new sweet cherry varieties.

Narrator
Most new sweet cherry varieties are self-fertile. The emphasis these days is on fruit quality, size, firmness, and cherries that ripen later in the season. Summerland-bred late varieties such as Lapins, named after Karl Lapins, and Sweetheart have already extended the cherry season by two to three weeks - to the beginning of August.

But there's even more late-breaking good news for cherry lovers!

Dr. Frank Kappel
We've just recently named one this past year called Staccato which comes in about five days to seven days after Sweetheart, which is a large firm cherry - good production on the tree. It also appears to be a little more resistant to rain induced cracking than some varieties so... it might find a place in the orchards in the future.

Narrator
Late sweet cherry varieties such as Staccato could extend the delicious season right into the first week of August... now that would be a cherry lover's dream come true!

Earth Tones is produced in co-operation with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.