Jacob Marsal, research director at Viveros Ebro, provides a comprehensive overview of the varietal program, particularly for cherries, explains the main customer demands, and gives an overview of the stone fruit season in the Ribera d'Ebre region in this interview.
As a nursery company, what do your customers ask for?
The tone remains consistent. It's always, as much as possible, about finding a variety that improves upon existing ones. In other words, whenever a farmer needs to renew a crop, they will always seek to improve the old variety with a better one. Therefore, it's always very important to have tested and contrasted the new varieties under the same conditions as the old ones to determine their improvement.
You are the successor to the business, with over 50 years of experience, at Viveros Ebro. Did you imagine this?
We usually don't take that into account, but the truth is we hope to be around for another 50 years, or more. We haven't lost the essence of a family business made up of an excellent team of professionals with a wealth of knowledge and research that we transmit to our customers.
How do you approach the future?
We must always seek to improve all aspects of plant material in the nursery, taking into account the varieties, rootstocks, with recommended management systems, and to optimize results.
As a nurseryman, what innovations are you introducing, and what projects are you involved in for the future?
Thanks to the various varietal programs we collaborate with, we offer a whole range of new varieties of different crops, from stone fruits to pome fruits and nuts.
What are these programs, and can you comment on them?
We work, among others, with IPS, Summerland, and SMS varieties, which we test year after year in our varietal trial fields.
Among the new crosses, alongside traditional ones, there are novelties such as:
There are also novelties for late cherries from Canadian programs Summerland and Zaiguer California, both well suited to low dormancy zones (350-500h).
And in other stone fruits?
There are many new peaches (Aspen white, Royal Dixie), nectarines (June Glory, Honey Sugar), plums (Crimson Glo, Tasty Sweet), and apricots (Prialina, Rubely) from IPS, which are yielding excellent results in experimental fields.
What does having your own experimental field mean for Viveros Ebro?
For us, it's the foundation for testing the good performance of new varieties. We can say that having an experimental field is fundamental for Viveros Ebro.
You also produce cherries: what are the characteristics of Ribera d'Ebre cherries compared to other competing production areas?
Ribera d'Ebre cherries, and by extension all fruit from Ribera d'Ebre, have always been characterized by their earliness, quality, and great tradition of stone fruit production.
Speaking of competing areas, is the origin of the fruit appreciated by the customer?
I believe that, given the current market situation, the value of a fruit is entirely relative to the quantity of that fruit on the market; in other words, if there's a shortage of product, the price is very good, and if, instead, there's an excess of product, the price is not as good. It's in this situation that a good evaluation of your fruit by the customer can offer better selling conditions as a reward.
Returning to the region's stone fruits, a first look at the season.
I would describe the year as rather unusual. A season marked by an irregular dormant period, with peaks of heat leading to irregular flowering and not massive fruit set, but since there hasn't been much fruit on the tree, the quality seems to be excellent so far.
Source: Valencia Fruits
Image: Pixabay
21 Oct 2024
An English study tested the application of gibberellic acid on sweet cherry trees for fruit development. GA3 is known for its ability to induce parthenocarpy, the formation of seedless fruits, in various plant species. However, effectiveness varies depending on the species.
19 Jul 2024
The application of dormancy breakers is more important with a low winter cold accumulation, as it produces a loss of reserves and lower quality of flower buds, which results in lower pollen and egg viability, reducing fruit set.
30 Oct 2024
"Most traditional cherries need a minimum of 800 hours of chilling, but our low-chilling varieties can produce fruit with less than half of those hours. This opens up cultivation opportunities in areas with milder winters."
30 Oct 2024
One of the restrictions imposed by the Chinese authorities concerns the packaging warehouse, which has to establish how to apply differentiated fruit handling throughout the process, from receipt to packaging and storage of the cherries.
