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���We don���t have a good handle on how negative inbreeding really is.��� Napoleon, which he called Royal Ann. His younger brother Seth is credited for discovering the original Black Republican tree grown from a seed of a Black Eagle cherry. In 1875, he found a promising seedling in a Black Republican planting that he named Bing, after Ah Bing, his Chinese foreman, who cared for the trees that produced the variety. ��� ���Amy Iezzoni as a parent in the development of new cherry varieties. Its offspring include Lapins, Selah, Tieton, Benton, and Chelan. Sweetheart came from a cross of Van and Newstar, and Newstar is a cross of Van and Stella. That means that Bing is related to the new varieties coming out of the Stella lineage, Iezzoni points out. Until now, they were not known to be genetically connected. ���So, if you���re going to have a family reunion for Stella, you would have to invite Bing, because they have a common ancestor,��� she said. ���In the case of Bing, Napoleon is a direct parent. In the case of Stella, it���s a grandparent.��� Rainier would also be at the reunion because it is a cross of Bing and Van. ���What this means is there���s DNA in Selah, Sweetheart, and Lapins, for example, that has the exact same ancestry as DNA in Bing and Rainier, and it gives us more power to figure out which of those Napoleon-derived DNA segments are making Bing so good,��� Iezzoni said. ���For example, what does Bing have that was not bred into Chelan?��� High Potency CYD-X�� HP Inbreeding Iezzoni said cherry breeders need to be concerned about inbreeding, which sometimes results in albino varieties. However, those are quickly identified and never make it as far as field tests. ���We don���t have a good handle on how negative inbreeding really is,��� she said. ���It���s something we need to watch.��� Dr. Cheryl Hampson, cherry breeder at Summerland, wonders if the difficulty of getting cherry seeds to germinate has something to do with inbreeding. That Napoleon is Bing���s father did not come as a total surprise, Iezzoni said. ���I suspected it was Napoleon for some time, because sweet cherry is not native to the United States and there are not that many possibilities. Also since Bing is a parent of Rainier, Bing had to be heterozygous for the blush-type cherry. ��� Hampson said the discovery stands to reason. Bing originated in Oregon, so the missing parent would have to be one of a small number of cherry varieties that were brought West before that time. According to a brief history of the Bing cherry, published in the May 15, 2011, issue of Good Fruit Grower, nursery pioneer Henderson Luelling migrated from Iowa to Oregon���s Willamette Valley in 1947, bringing 700 fruit tree seedlings in earth-filled boxes to start a nursery. One of the trees he brought from Iowa was www.goodfruit.com The most potent codling moth virus...ever. CYD-X HP codling moth granulosis virus. Powerful. Versatile. Easy to use. OMRI�� Listed and NOP Approved. For conventional or organic farming. Residue exempt. Four-hour reentry interval (REI) and zero plant harvest interval (PHI). No effect on bene���cial insects. Devastating to codling moth larvae. ] [ �� 2013 Certis USA www.CertisUSA.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER JANUARY 1, 2013 19