Stavropol State Agrarian University will start growing virus-free seedlings for super-intensive apple orchards

On the basis of the educational and experimental farm of Stavropol State Agrarian University, the first in Russia farm of fruit and berry crops was established, operating on a closed cycle system.

The total area of queen cells is 2.0 hectares. Three nurseries were established on this territory: a uterine-cutting orchard, a mother liquor of clonal rootstocks and strawberries. With the help of nurseries and their own laboratory of agricultural biotechnology (in vitro), SSAU scientists expect to receive annually about 100,000 seedlings of fruit crops and planting material of strawberries that have been healed from diseases and pests.

Now the researchers of Stavropol State Agrarian University are working on the propagation of planting material for the most popular varieties of apple trees in Russia and the Stavropol Territory. Among them: “Granny Smith”, “Gala”, “Fuji”, “Red Delicious”, “Golden Delicious”. There are 19 varieties in total.

The main feature of the mother farm is the possibility of its own production of virus-free planting material for fruit and berry crops with the best productive characteristics.

– Despite the powerful breakthrough in the technology of growing fruit and berry crops, which has already provided us with a fivefold increase in the production of apples alone, the key problem of the industry has not been solved – the availability of the necessary amount of our own production of rootstocks and seedlings of high quality berry crops in the industrial demands of the industry. Today, we are 80-100% dependent on foreign supplies for various types of rootstocks and seedlings of berry crops. Proceeding from this, the Stavropol Agrarian University is among the first scientific centers to be included in the practical solution of the problem, - stressed the rector of SSAU Vladimir Sitnikov.

By 2030, Stavropol State Agrarian University will be able to annually grow about 5 million healthy seedlings of pome, stone fruit and berry crops. The launch of a unique nursery center for fruit and berry crops, which is being created at the university as part of the Priority 2030 program with the support of Innopraktika, will allow reaching industrial volumes of production of virus-free planting material.

— Stavropol State Agrarian University is one of the first in Russia to develop a strategic project in the field of fruit and berry crop nursery. In addition to the tasks of replacing foreign seedlings with domestic ones, SSAU will train specialists capable of developing domestic fruit breeding, - commented Vladimir Avdeenko, Director of the Directorate for the Development of Agro- and Biotechnologies at Innopraktika. 

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