Abstract

Some 100 seedling trees planted at Mainit, Bay, Laguna, Philippines, were evaluated to select the most desirable cashew genotypes. The seedling trees originated from open-pollinated seeds or nuts taken from established trees growing in the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) Orchard. After the preliminary evaluation, one superior cashew tree (Accession No. 47) was selected. This tree was re-evaluated for another two years to ascertain the stability of its performance. Ten fruit samples were used to characterize the tree in each evaluation period. In 2003, cashew Accession No. 47 was finally selected and submitted for variety registration to the National Seed Industry Council (NSIC) of the Department of Agriculture (DA) during 2000-02 of fruit evaluation. The NSIC compared its traits with the previously developed criteria for variety selection standards set by the Fruit Crops Technical Working Group (FCTWG). In 2006, Accession No. 47 was named Red Princess cashew and passed the standard criteria set by NSIC, then the FCTWG. The parent tree is strong and vigorous and has an erect to semi-spreading growth habit. It is a regular annual bearer with fruits maturing from April to June. The tree is productive at the time of its evaluation (approximately 15 years) where it yielded 400-500 fruits per season. The 'Red Princess' cashew is recommended for both apple and nut production. The tree is propagated by cleft grafting.