The Meda sweet cherry series

Savvas Pastopoulos, Agronomist MSc, Pastopoulos Agronomics, Neos Mylotopos, Pella, Greece

The Meda series is six club varieties of sweet cherry selected against a criterion no earlier series had placed first, the behaviour of the fruit after harvest. They are intended for an early harvest with Kordia-type quality and for sea freight to China. This text gathers what has been published, states explicitly which figures come from the rights holder, and shows the three points at which those figures do not transfer to Greek conditions without checking.

1. Who owns the series and where it came from

The rights belong to International Varieties Unlimited, founded in 2010 as a joint venture between the American breeding company Proprietary Fruit Varieties of California, of the late Marvin Nies, and a group of Chilean nurserymen and exporters [3]. The genetic material comes from the breeding work of Nies in California, which ran for about fifty years, and the present varieties were selected from eighty Californian genotypes over more than ten years [3] [4].

The material passed through Naktuinbouw in the Netherlands and is described as virus free, while the application for European plant variety rights was filed in 2024 [1]. That structure, American genetics, a Chilean commercial centre of gravity and European certification, also explains where the varieties were tested and for which market.

Sources: 1 3 4

2. The varieties and the published traits

The table reproduces the figures as the source gives them, with ripening expressed in days against two references, Santina and Burlat [3]. Firmness is given in instrument units, with no instrument type stated.

It is worth noting that Taurus is proposed as the pollinator of three varieties in the same series without its own S genotype being published [3]. For the variety that carries the pollination of a whole planting, that is the single most basic figure, and it is missing.

The European trials give a second indicator of size, the percentage of fruit above 28 millimetres, with Kordia as the reference [1] [2].

Sources: 1 2 3

3. The criterion that sets the programme apart

The series was selected with Chilean export to China in mind, which travels almost entirely by sea. All the varieties were selected to last at least 35 to 40 days after harvest, and the source states that this is the only breeding programme to have used post-harvest behaviour as a selection filter [2].

The reasoning behind the choice was that three varieties alone account for 80% of Chilean exports, so what was wanted was early varieties able to withstand the same travelling time [2].

Sources: 2

4. Pollination, the point that decides the planting

Sweet cherry has gametophytic self-incompatibility. Two varieties with the same S genotype do not pollinate one another, however well their flowering coincides. The table in section 2 conceals two such pairs within the series itself.

• Rex and Tiger are both S1S4.
• Bull and Wolf are both S1S3.

A planting of Rex and Tiger alone, or of Bull and Wolf alone, is a planting without pollination. The source acknowledges this indirectly, since it proposes Taurus or Lapins as pollinators and not the varieties of the series for each other [3].

Lapins is proposed for three of the five varieties with published data [3]. It is a solution that works, but it carries two consequences worth counting before planting. The first is that it introduces a late variety with its own programme into an orchard built for an early harvest. The second is that the overlap in flowering has to be confirmed under local conditions rather than assumed, because the order of flowering shifts with the climate.

A second point makes the question tighter still. Sweet cherry has no male and female trees, its flowers are hermaphrodite and every variety bears fruit. In the Meda series all six are commercial fruiting varieties and none is intended solely as a pollinator. Whichever pollinator is chosen therefore occupies a productive place within the planting, and its fruit has to be saleable. In an orchard set up for an early harvest Lapins is not a neutral choice, because its fruit ripens outside the window the planting was made for.

Fruit set in sweet cherry, with the mechanisms and the causes of failure, is developed in the article Why sweet cherries fail to set fruit.

Sources: 3

5. The chilling figures

The source gives a chilling requirement of 400 to 500 units for Rex and Bull and 600 for Fox, Tiger and Wolf [3]. The figure is given without stating the model.

The Greek context gives the size of the question. The literature places the requirement of sweet cherry between 520 and 1,320 chilling hours depending on the variety, and in Dynamic portions the range across varieties in a Mediterranean climate is 58 to 84. Those figures, with their sources, are developed in the article Breaking dormancy in sweet cherry, and the chilling hours question.

If the figures for the series refer to Weinberger hours, then these are varieties of low to moderate requirement. In northern Greece that requirement is met comfortably, so the question is not whether dormancy will break. It is the opposite.

Sources: 3

6. The trials, and the conditions they were run under

The European trials began in 2014 on Gisela 5 rootstock, at initial spacings of 4 by 2 metres and later 4 by 1 [2]. The covers are closed from flowering to the end of harvest, and irrigation is scheduled from tension readings in kPa and volumetric water content [2].

The extent of the trials is given differently in the two texts. One reports three seasons at more than fifteen sites [2], the more recent one four seasons at more than twenty sites [1], which is consistent with a year having passed in between. Most of the data come from Spain and the Netherlands, and first productions are reported in Greece, Italy, France, England, Norway, Sweden, Hungary and Slovakia [1] [2].

In Chile more than 400 hectares have been planted in three years, with Rex as the leading variety, and agreements exist with the twelve main exporters in the country [1]. The same source reports that Rex had problems in its first productions, addressed with a variety management manual [1]. That piece of information is among the most useful of the whole set, because it shows that the variety demands a specific management and does not behave like the established ones.

Cherry rootstocks, with the vigour and behaviour of each, are developed in the article Cherry rootstocks, a detailed guide, and training systems in Sweet cherry training systems.

Sources: 1 2

7. What a club variety means in practice

The six varieties are protected and available only through licensed nurseries [1] [4]. That model has specific consequences, which are not agronomic but weigh on the decision just as much.

The tree is not bought on its own, it is bought together with a right of use. Propagation by the grower is forbidden, replanting with his own material likewise, and there are often terms governing where and how the fruit is marketed. The cost is not only the price of the tree, and the terms differ by country and by agreement.

In the sources found, no financial term is published, neither a tree price, nor a royalty per hectare, nor a minimum area. Planting commitments are reported, at least 600 hectares from eight Chilean exporters, 250 hectares with an American company, 100 hectares in Spain and a 100 hectare agreement in progress in South Africa [3]. Those magnitudes show that the programme is aimed mainly at large organised units with an export channel, and that alone answers a great deal of the Greek production landscape.

Sources: 1 3 4

The empirical assessment of the varieties already grown in the area is in the article Sweet cherry varieties: an empirical assessment.

8. Sources

The numbers in the text refer to the list below.

• [1] Meda™ cherries: early premium varieties expanding from Europe to China. Cherry Times, 14 May 2025. Source for the percentages of fruit above 28 millimetres by variety, for ripening ten to twenty days before Kordia, for the four seasons at more than twenty sites, for the more than 400 hectares in Chile and the agreements with the twelve exporters, for the problems in the first productions of Rex and the management manual, for the passage through Naktuinbouw and the 2024 rights application, and for the composition of the set of six including Dragon. Full text. Trade press reproducing a company presentation.
• [2] Meda™: new early and intermediate cherry varieties in Europe. Cherry Times. Source for the criterion of 35 to 40 days of post-harvest life and for the statement that this is the only programme to have used it as a filter, for three varieties accounting for 80% of Chilean exports, for the three seasons at more than fifteen sites, for the start of the trials in 2014 on Gisela 5 at 4 by 2 and later 4 by 1 metres, for the covers closed from flowering to harvest and for irrigation scheduled with kPa and volumetric water content. Full text, retrieved 9 October 2026. Trade press.
• [3] New high-quality early varieties: the Meda® series. Cherry Times. Source for the ownership and the founding of International Varieties Unlimited in 2010 as a joint venture of Proprietary Fruit Varieties of Marvin Nies with Chilean nurserymen and exporters, for the selection from eighty Californian genotypes over more than ten years, for the table of ripening against Santina and Burlat, size, firmness, sugars, S genotypes, proposed pollinators and chilling requirements, and for the planting commitments in Chile, the United States, Spain and South Africa. Full text, retrieved 9 October 2026. Trade press.
• [4] Meda Cherry, the official website of the series. Source for the names and IVU codes of the six varieties as the rights holder presents them, for the reference to fifty years of breeding work by Marvin Nies in California and ten years of selection by the IVU team, and for distribution through licensed nurseries. Retrieved 9 October 2026. Website of the rights holder, that is promotional material.