Bing

Bing originates from the USA, where it was developed back in 1875. in the state of Oregon by the renowned fruit grower and breeder Seth Lewelling, who named it in honor of his loyal Chinese worker, Ah Bing. Due to its unsurpassed richness of taste, large fruit size, and outstanding flesh firmness, it has for decades been the most widely grown commercial sweet cherry in North America and historically the most important global standard for the entire class of premium dark firm-fleshed sweet cherries.

It is a fully cross-pollinated variety. Since it flowers medium-early, its best, biologically synchronized, and field-proven pollinators are Van, Stella, Lapins, and Sam. It flowers exceptionally abundantly and over a long period.

The tree is very vigorous, strong, robust, and long-lived, with powerful scaffold branches that form a broadly branched, large, and moderately dense canopy. When grafted onto classic vigorous rootstocks, it enters full bearing somewhat later, around the fourth or fifth year after planting, which is why it gives perfect results on modern low-vigor rootstocks. Once it starts bearing, with suitable pollinators, it produces regular, stable, and exceptionally high yields. It requires strict and proper winter and summer, or green, pruning in order to control vigor, widen branch angles, and regularly renew fruiting wood, especially May bouquets.

It belongs to the group of medium-late sweet cherry varieties. In our region and under continental climatic conditions, it reaches harvest maturity in mid-June, usually between June 12 and 20, in the fourth and fifth weeks of the sweet cherry season, at the same time as the Canadian variety Van and a few days before Stella.

Harvesting takes place in mid-June. The fruit ripens fairly uniformly on the tree and is characterized by a recognizable, medium-long, thick green stem, which makes picking easier and prevents the crop from dropping easily in stronger winds.

It is characterized by exceptionally good storage ability. In fresh condition, it can be successfully kept in cold storage for 1 to even 2 weeks. Due to its very firm and compact fruit flesh, it tolerates picking, sorting, mechanical sizing, packing, and long-distance transport very well, without any risk of crushing or juice leakage. It is primarily intended for luxury fresh table consumption on domestic and foreign markets, and it is also exceptional for industrial processing into premium compote halves and high-quality preserves.

The fruit is large to very large, with an average weight of 8.5–9.5 g, uniform on the tree, and attractive in its broad-heart-shaped to roundish form, with a characteristic slight depression at the very tip of the fruit. The skin is thicker, firm, elastic, smooth, and distinctly glossy, and at full maturity it is intense dark red to deep burgundy-black in color. The flesh is dark red, very firm, compact, and crisp, typical of a true firm-fleshed sweet cherry, exceptionally fleshy and juicy. The taste is outstanding, rich, and dessert-like, characterized by high sugar content, a minimal level of pleasant refreshing acidity, and a luxurious, recognizable aroma of true dark sweet cherry.

It is moderately resistant to diseases. It shows excellent natural resistance of the wood to low winter temperatures during full dormancy. On the other hand, it is highly susceptible to fruit cracking caused by heavy and sudden June rains during the ripening period, which is why in humid conditions it requires intensive preventive chemical protection against Monilinia and fruit rot, Monilinia laxa. It is also highly susceptible to bacterial canker of the roots and trunk, Pseudomonas syringae, which is why it does not tolerate cold and heavy soils and requires regular preventive protection with copper-based products in autumn and early spring.

The root system is exceptionally strong, deep, and branched. It tolerates dry periods very well in mature years, but requires deep, permeable, light, warm, and well-drained soils, while it absolutely does not tolerate heavy, clayey, compacted, or waterlogged soils with a high groundwater level, where it quickly suffers from root asphyxia and declines.

Our sweet cherry fruit trees are produced on highly compatible, certified rootstocks: mahaleb cherry, Prunus mahaleb, and wild sweet cherry for classic and long-lived orchards. In addition to vigorous rootstocks, we also produce fruit trees on modern low- to medium-vigor vegetative rootstocks Gisela 5 and Gisela 6, which are the mandatory standard for this variety, as they ideally control its great natural vigor, drastically accelerate entry into full bearing, as early as the second year, and enable the establishment of intensive, high-density, and highly profitable commercial orchards.