FLAVOR TREE WALMART CHERRY FEB 19 2019 FLAVOR TREE WALMART 2019 | Page 7

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON SEQUOIA® VARIETY CHERRY
Warmerdam Packing LLC of Hanford, California has an exclusive proprietary cherry breeding program in
conjunction with Bradford Genetics, a leading California natural plant geneticist. This program consists of a
varietal club program called the Sequoia program, which initially consisted of four cultivars of similar
characteristics.
The single cultivar within the Sequoia club program that constitutes the majority of commercial
production is the Glenred. When the Glenred met certain market characteristics (size, color, firmness and brix)
the cherry was marked and marketed as a Sequoia cherry. Any eleven row and smaller cherries were usually
marked as Glenred.
At this time, the Glenred cultivar, coupled with a few Glenoia cultivar cherries are marketed as Sequoia.
The remaining two cultivars in the original Sequoia club program are marketed as the Glenare (this variety is
primarily planted as a pollinizer and has limited production) and the Yosemite™, a name used for marketing the
Glenrock cultivar.
The Glenred was first hybridized in 1992 as a first generation seedling cross between a Tulare seed
pollinized with Brooks pollen. The geneticist cross pollinates scores of samples and selects the hybrids with the
most desirable characteristics for further testing.
The Sequoia variety is meant to displace the Brooks variety in the marketplace due to predictable superior
characteristics from both a production and marketing viewpoint.
From a production standpoint, the following comparisons to the Brooks variety can be made:
Quality defects:
The Sequoia is virtually non-doubling, so a higher percentage of the crop will be
marketable as a top-grade cherry.
Rain resistance:
The Sequoia is much more rain resistant than the Brooks variety. The Brooks has a
tendency to crack at a straw color stage, where the Sequoia has no tendency to crack at
that stage. The Sequoia becomes susceptible to cracking a few days prior to harvest,
but at a much lower percentage rate than the Brooks.
Color:
The Sequoia reaches a darker color (3, 4 or 5 on the cherry maturity chart) as much as 7
to 10 days earlier than the Brooks.
Size:
The Sequoia tends to peak about one-half a row-size smaller than the Brooks.
A typical peak size may be 10.5row or 10row for a Sequoia, compared to 10row
or 9.5row for a Brooks.
Timing:
The timing for a Sequoia at stage 3 on the color maturity chart is virtually identical to
Brooks at a stage 1. The Sequoia will achieve higher soluble solid contents earlier,
directly correlating to its color maturity; e.g. a color 3 Sequoia at 18 degrees Brix would
harvest alongside a color 1 Brooks at a typical 16 degree Brix; a color 3 Brooks would
harvest alongside a color 5 Sequoia.