Despite this, and the efforts that have been implemented to carry out this task, the climate factor seems to continue to be one of the great difficulties to be overcome. Regardless of the lower number of cold hours, cherry studies in Peru are being carried out mainly on the northern coast of the country, where even though mountains have better cold hours, there are rainfall and frost limitations, as well as a lack of good roads which increases the logistical complexity of carrying out studies there. This was explained by Gabriela Mercedes Crespo, head of research on new crops at the Peruvian company, Agualima SAC, and a researcher at Concytec, during her participation in the 12th edition of the PEC Cherry Conference, held in the Chilean region of O’Higgins.
Furthermore, as FreshPlaza reported, she indicated that “cherry trees require 18 to 24 degrees in their productive stage, more than 50% humidity, and good root growth in loam or sandy loam soil. Depending on the variety to be studied, a cherry tree needs 400 to 900 cold hours and 600 to 800 hours of solar radiation.”
Thus, although in the trials that are being carried out there has been good sprouting and root growth, the flowering and curdling process is still not very good. In addition, pollen viability is low, as in the Lapins variety, which reaches 58%, and in other varieties with even lower viability, so there’s still more research needed.
On the other hand, Agualima, also started a cherry project with Colt and Acid patterns, and various varieties, a year and a half ago. According to Mercedes Crespo, in this project, they must establish that phenological management is now conditioned by climate variability because of this year’s El Niño phenomenon, which changes some parameters. However, she stressed that all initiatives of this type in Peru are already learning about care and applications, as well as pollination techniques and carrying out tests with more varieties thanks to nurseries that now have this portfolio.
In this way, although there are projections for the coming years, with a view to Asian countries and those who are already their large trading partners, there is still a long way to go, since as indicated, they are still in the process of learning and adaptability, which distances them from countries like Chile, in at least 6 or 8 years, as Crespo pointed out.
Source: Fresh Plaza
