The Agricultural Research Council in South Africa has launched a new range of Afri apple varieties that can thrive under warmer climatic conditions. Dr Leon von Mollendorff, general manager of Culdevco, a joint venture between the ARC and the SA Deciduous Fruit Industry, said that traditional apple trees required at least 800 cold units, according to the ARC’s Infruitec-Nietvoorbij research institute. This had a strong influence on the quantity, quality and timing of flowering.
The new low-chill varieties, however, were able to do well in areas that accumulated as few as 200 to 500 cold units, depending on the variety. These low-chill varieties were the result of more than 15 years of breeding, selection and evaluation, started by Dr Iwan Labuschagne. The breeding program aimed to reduce climatic risks and provide emerging and small-scale producers with a means to diversify market risk and increase profits, he said.
The ARC had received plant breeders’ rights for six of these varieties in 2014 and they could now be ordered from Culdevco for commercial production.
Source: zaszambia.wordpress.com
