Two agricultural producers from Moldova will test sorts of strawberry and raspberry brought from the United States for diversifying the range of existing sorts that meet the market requirements. The plantlets were supplied by nurseries based in California and Massachusetts with the support of the USAID High-Value Agriculture Project, IPN reports.
According to a press release, the sorts imported for being tested become ripe early and late. The extension of the variety of sorts will offer the farmers the possibility of selling berries during a long period of time and to become more competitive on the market.
The imported strawberry sorts include two varieties with high productivity in May-June – Camarosa and Ventana – and two varieties that yield fruit throughout the year – Monterey and Portola. There are also tested three sorts of summer strawberries – Latham, Nova and Killarney – and a sort of raspberry that yields fruit until late autumn – Caroline.
“This year we cultivate 500 strawberry plants as an experiment. The projected average harvest per hectare is 40 tonnes, while per plant is about 1.5 kg,” said Angela Bejenari, who cultivates strawberries on a experimental plot.
“The cultivation of the new imported sorts will offer us more advantages, such as high productivity, resistance to disease, transportation over long distances and, surely, the light red color that is more attractive to buyers,” said Natalia Iliescu, who cultivates raspberry on an experimental plot.
The performance of the eight sorts of berries will be assessed on plots cultivated in Moldova’s weather conditions. The first commercial crop will be obtained in 2019.
