Completed project
Making good variety investment decisions: a tree fruit variety evaluation program for Australia (MT10051)
Publication date: October 6, 2014
Delivery Partner: Grahams FacTree
This substantial project involved planting a number of crops in four key production regions across Australia to evaluate the characteristics of a number of varieties. It ran from 2010 to 2014.
The project evaluated nearly 1000 new summerfruit and cherry varieties including interspecific varieties – crosses between apricots and plums – that take on some of the characteristics of both parents. These interspecific varieties are fruits with new appearances, flavours and textures that, in general, are very good to eat.
In addition, peach (yellow fleshed and white fleshed), nectarine (yellow fleshed and white fleshed), cherry, apricot and plum varieties were evaluated.
The study comprised two evaluation phases plus standard variety measures for comparison:
The systematic evaluation produced a large amount of data on varieties that growers can use to make informed decisions prior to planting in a particular growing area. All findings were made available to growers on the Graham’s FacTree website.
Related industries
This multi-industry project was a strategic levy investment in the Hort Innovation Cherry and Summerfruit Funds
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