Sweet cherry is appreciated among people for its early ripening and high fruit quality. Spring frosts often occur during the cherry blossom period in Samara region and dry and hot weather during flowering damage flowers and ovaries. Sweet cherry productivity can be significantly increased as a result of selection. The purpose of the research is to develop and transfer to the state variety testing adaptive sweet cherry varieties for the conditions of Samara region. Research objective is to study the main economically useful traits and biological properties of the sweet cherry varieties available in the collection. Trees of sweet cherry varieties of different ages at the site of primary variety study were the objects of phenological observations and records. Research on selection and primary variety study was carried out according to the existing methods of work with fruit and berry crops. As a result of intervarietal crosses and sowing of seeds from free pollination of the best varieties, 12 new elite forms of sweet cherry were obtained. One cherry variety called Nyusha was handed over for state testing. As a result of work on primary variety study, the productivity, ripening time and quality of fruits and elites of sweet cherry, resistance of varieties to diseases and pests were studied. The assortment of adaptive varieties available in the collection was determined, the nature of tree damage in winter period was established. The best in terms of productivity are the varieties Bryanskaya Rozovaya, Nyusha, Pervinka, Symphony, Fatezh, the elites TSKHA-1 and TSKHA-2.

The concept of ecosystem services, which has been developed over the past 20 years in foreign and native scientific literature, is to a different extent specified in relation to various types of ecosystems. A relatively new approach is its application to orchards as important components of human agricultural activity. The ecosystem functions they perform as regards to the volume and implementation effectiveness depend on the regional soil and climatic conditions and the technologies used. For the Samara Region, this problem is considered for the first time. Trends associated with the dynamics of the fruit and berry plantations area in the Russian Federation are discussed, including general indicators decrease simultaneously with the intensive orchards growth. At present, the Samara Region is significantly ahead of neighboring regions in the gardens area, with their minimum area in the Ulyanovsk Region. Other territorial units belonging to the Middle Volga horticultural province of the Saratov Region such as republics of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan possess significant areas occupied by the gardens. In addition to large horticultural farms, the cultivation of fruit crops in the Samara Region is widespread among the local population. Horticultural agrocenoses of industrial and individual kinds, participating in the implementation of ecosystem services do it differently not only because of their different area scale. The authors explain this provision with examples related to specific groups of ecosystem services. The main target ecosystem service, growing of fruits, in terms of assortment and volume in the Samara Region is supplied to a greater extent at the expense of the individual orchards of the population. Agrotechnical features, implying large-scale treatment of industrial gardens with chemicals, pose a greater risk of environmental pollution. A greater variety of cultivated crops, varieties and organisms trophically associated with them as well as less intensive chemicalization level provide the gardens of the population with a leading position in the conservation of biological diversity, both natural and cultivated.

Eight elites of Russian plum were created and transferred to the state test as a result of many years of breeding work on interstitial hybridization in the Samara region. According to the results of many years of observations and field surveys, the most frost-resistant varieties of Russian plum were identified; the nature of damage to plum plants in severe winters was studied. Experimental data proved the promise of growing Russian plum varieties in the Middle Volga region. The varieties Kompotnaya (23.6 kg per tree), Mara (19.4 kg), Smart (13.8 kg) and Poselkovskaya (10.4 kg) have high productivity. Ripening dates, weight and taste of fruits in Russian plum depend on the variety, air temperature and the amount of precipitation. The varieties possess large fruits (weighing 35-50 g) Kuban Comet, Found, elite Giantess, Canning, Dressy, 1/17. The best tastes were the varieties Kuban Comet (4.5 points), July Rose (4.4 points), Found (4.5 points), Pramen (4.5 points), the elite Long-awaited and Canned (4.4 points).