Stark Hardy Giant

Stark Hardy Giant (Starking Hardy Giant) originates from the USA, where it was discovered as a chance seedling of unknown origin in the state of Washington, and was commercialized and patented by the renowned American nursery company Stark Bro’s. Due to its exceptional, giant fruit size, extreme flesh firmness, unsurpassed resistance of the tree to winter frosts, and high tolerance to cracking, it is one of the most highly valued, safest, and most reliable commercial sweet cherry varieties of the mid-season period.

It is a fully cross-pollinated variety. Since it carries the genotype S₃S₄ and belongs to the I sterility group, it cannot set fruit with its own pollen, so the presence of compatible pollinator varieties flowering at the same time is essential in the orchard. It is distinctly genetically incompatible with Bing and Lambert, as all three varieties share the same I sterility group, making mutual pollination in the field impossible and resulting in a complete lack of crop. Since it flowers medium-early, its best, biologically synchronized, and field-proven pollinators are Van, Kordia, Sam, and the self-fertile Stella.

The tree is very vigorous, strong, robust, and long-lived, with strong scaffold branches that form a wide, spacious, well-branched, and semi-spreading canopy. It enters full bearing early when grafted onto modern low-vigor rootstocks, as early as the second or third year after planting. Once it starts bearing, with suitable pollinators, it produces regular, stable, and exceptionally abundant yields every year. It responds very well to standard pruning and mandatory bending and training of young shoots in the first two years in order to control its naturally strong vigor and widen the canopy branch angles.

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, ripening at the same time as Bing and only 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, long, thick, and firm green stem, which greatly facilitates and speeds up hand picking without the risk of tearing or damaging the flesh around the calyx end.

It is characterized by exceptionally good storage ability. In fresh condition, it can be successfully kept in cold storage for 7–14 days. Due to its very firm, compact, and fleshy fruit, it tolerates picking, rough mechanical sizing, packing, and long-distance transport perfectly, without any risk of crushing or juice leakage. It is primarily intended for premium fresh table consumption on domestic and demanding foreign markets, but due to its flesh firmness it is also excellently suited for industrial processing into compotes and preserves.

The fruit is very large to giant, with an average weight of 9 to over 10.5 g, and with excellent agricultural practice individual berries can reach even greater weights. It is uniform on the tree and attractive in its large, broad-heart-shaped form. The skin is firm, smooth, and distinctly glossy, and at full maturity it is intense dark red to luxury dark burgundy in color, with tiny, barely noticeable lighter dots, or lenticels. The flesh is dark red, exceptionally firm, compact, and crisp, typical of a firm-fleshed sweet cherry, very fleshy and juicy. The taste is outstanding, rich, full, and dessert-like, characterized by high sugar content, fine refreshing acidity, and a luxurious aroma of true sweet cherry.

As its very name suggests, Hardy, it is characterized by outstanding and unsurpassed natural resistance of the wood and flower buds to extremely low winter frosts during dormancy. It also has high fruit resistance to cracking caused by heavy summer rains during the ripening period, which is a major commercial advantage in the field during humid years. It requires standard preventive chemical protection against Monilinia fruit rot, Monilinia laxa, as well as mandatory protection from birds, which are attracted by the large, dark crop.

The root system is exceptionally strong, deep, and branched. It uses moisture and nutrients from deeper soil layers very well, but it absolutely does not tolerate heavy, clayey, compacted, or waterlogged soils with a high groundwater level, where lack of oxygen quickly causes root decline, or asphyxia, and tree dieback. It requires deep, permeable, light, and fertile soils on well-ventilated sites.

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 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 great natural vigor, drastically accelerate entry into full bearing, as early as the second year, and enable the establishment of intensive, super-high-density, and highly profitable commercial orchards.