The fourth musketeer is out for a battle!

In honour of the 100 Years of Horticulture Science celebration at the University of Saskatchewan, Dr. Bob Bors (Plant Breeder with University of Saskatchewan Fruit Program) released a new dwarf sour cherry variety called D’Artagnan!

Why the name D’Artagnan?

D’Artagnan was the fourth musketeer in the 1800’s tale of “The Three Musketeers”. This is the fourth variety of Dr. Bor’s “Musketeer” series. The other three varieties in this series have not been released in Canada yet.

D'artagnan was developed out of crossing 'Kerr's Easy Pick' and 'Cacanski Rubin' as part of the Dr. Bor’s ‘Romance Series’ Breeding Program. Thus, it’s closely related to Romance series having some of the same parentage as Juliet, Valentine and Crimson Passion. It produces burgundy coloured fruit with flavour similar to Valentine and Juliet.

(Picture courtesy: Dr. Bob Bors)

D’Artagnan offers great dependability, flavour, and ease of harvest for commercial growers. It’s shorter than the Romance series topping out at about 6’ in height when fully mature whereas the romance series averaging 8feet in height. In recent years, commercial growers have been using special sideways harvesting machines to harvest sour cherries. The shorter stature and limber, arching branches of D’Artagnan are well suited to sideways harvesters which bends the branches over a conveyor belt. The fruit only drops a few inches versus several feet with conventional upright harvesting machines, resulting in far less damage to fruit. D’Artagnan also requires far less pruning than other varieties, which reduces labour costs for growers. While this is the best cherry variety for sideways harvesters, it is also the best variety for homeowners that want a hedge of cherries. It can be grown as complementary crop with Saskatoons because both crops are adapted to sideways harvester.

(Picture courtesy: Dr. Bob Bors)

Floramaxx specializes in tissue culture propagation of University of Saskatchewan’s dwarf sour cherries. If you are interested in having D’Artagnan in your home or an orchard, please don't hesitate book your plants by emailing us at info@flormaxx.ca or giving us a call on 1-778-754-6299.

Happy #sourcherry growing!