Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Five new apple varieties are being tested by consumers at Zurich’s Letzipark shopping centre, and let’s hope they have similar taste buds to the rest of us, because their votes could well determine which apples will make it to market – Modi or Juliet or one of the others?
Three of the new apple varieties are the result of new hybrids and two are the result of genetically improved plants from the federal agricultural research centre, Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil ACW. Apple trees in Switzerland have been hit hard by a fungis and some of the improvements are designed to resist this, while others aim to give us crunchier, juicier or more tart or sweeter apples. All of them have greater resistance to scab disease which means they can be used for bio farming since spraying several times during the growing season is no longer necessary.
