Kordia

Kordia originates from the Czech Republic, from the village of Těchlovice, where it was discovered as a chance seedling and released into wide commercial production in the 1960s. Due to its exceptional, giant fruit size, extremely firm flesh, beautiful dark color, and outstanding transport resistance, it is currently the most highly valued, most sought-after, and economically most profitable late table sweet cherry variety on the global and European markets. It is considered the uncrowned queen among late varieties.

It is a fully cross-pollinated variety. Its flowering period does not overlap with Regina. Since it flowers medium-early, its best, biologically synchronized, and field-proven pollinators are Summit, Karina, Van, Ferrovia, and Stella.

The tree is medium to highly vigorous, with strong scaffold branches that form a recognizable, attractive, well-branched, and broad-pyramidal canopy with a distinctly upright branch growth angle. It enters full bearing somewhat later when grafted onto classic vigorous rootstocks, around the fourth or fifth year after planting, which is why it gives perfect results on low-vigor rootstocks. Once it starts bearing, with the presence of suitable pollinators, it produces regular, stable, and exceptionally high yields. Mandatory bending and training of young shoots in the first two years are required in order to widen the branch angles of the canopy.

It belongs to the group of late sweet cherry varieties. In our region and under continental climatic conditions, it reaches harvest maturity in the second half of June, usually between June 18 and 28, in the sixth week of the sweet cherry season.

Harvesting takes place at the end of June. The fruit ripens fairly uniformly on the tree and is characterized by an exceptionally long, thick, and strong green stem, which greatly facilitates, speeds up, and reduces the cost of hand picking without the risk of damaging the flesh. The fruit can remain on the branch for a very long time, even up to about ten days after full maturity, without any loss of firmness or quality.

It is characterized by unsurpassed, premium long-term storage ability for a sweet cherry. In fresh condition, it can be successfully kept in cold storage for 2 to even 3 weeks while retaining full freshness. Due to its extremely firm and fleshy fruit and resistant skin, it tolerates picking, rough mechanical sizing, packing, and long-distance transport perfectly, without any risk of crushing or juice leakage. It is the absolute premium leader and favorite for global export. It is used exclusively for luxury fresh table consumption.

The fruit is exceptionally large to giant, with an average weight of 9 to over 11 g and a caliber diameter exceeding 28–30 mm. It is uniform on the tree and regular in shape, very attractive, heart-shaped to slightly elongated, with a recognizable flattened tip. The skin is firm, elastic, smooth, and distinctly glossy, intense dark carmine at harvest, turning beautiful dark burgundy to glossy coal-black at full maturity. The flesh is dark red, extremely firm, compact, and recognizably crisp, typical of a premium firm-fleshed sweet cherry, very fleshy and juicy. The taste is outstanding, rich, and dessert-like, characterized by a perfect balance of high sugar content and a fine, refreshing acidic note, with a luxurious and noble varietal aroma.

It is characterized by exceptionally high natural resistance of the fruit to cracking caused by heavy summer rains during the ripening period, which is its greatest commercial and cultivation advantage in the field. On the other hand, due to its moderately early start of vegetation, its flower buds and flowers are extremely sensitive to late spring frosts and cold spells, so it requires the mandatory selection of warmer, elevated, well-drained, and well-ventilated vineyard-type sites. It shows excellent resistance of the wood to harsh winter frosts.

The root system is strong, deep, and branched. It uses moisture from deeper layers very well and tolerates dry periods successfully, but it absolutely does not tolerate heavy, compacted, clayey, or overly wet soils, where excess groundwater quickly causes root suffocation and tree decline. It requires deep, permeable, light, and moderately fertile soils.

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 on drier and skeletal soils. 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 globally mandatory standard for this variety, as they ideally control its natural vigor, drastically accelerate entry into full bearing, as early as the second year, and enable the establishment of super-high-density intensive orchards with high profitability.