This week, we visit the companies that exhibited at the ARRA™ Open Field Days in August and offer our raders a peek at some of their products for grape vines.
Wonderful Nurseries
Based in California, Wonderful Nurseries is one of the top five nurseries in the world and is the licensed nursery of ARD (ARRA varieties) supplying wonderful ARRA grape vines to North American, Mexican and international growers.
Wonderful Nurseries ship over 10 million vines annually and farm over 1,600 acres of mother block supplying more than 500 different varieties and 30 different rootstocks to growers worldwide. This includes a new 10-acre mother block dedicated to the ARRA program which will produce up to 1 million grape vines annually when in full production.
Retilplast Srl
Regular exhibitors at the ARRA Open Field Days, Retilplast Srl produce specially designed polyethylene cover PolyFilm-Plus, that diffuses sunlight and allows the passage of beneficial UV-A and UV-B light, improving the overall quality of light reaching the grape vines.
Retilplast’s covers are currently under assessment at the ARD facilities in California, where promising results have been seen at the Giumarra-Arra-Retilplast Demonstration field. In the evaluation block, the ARRA varieties grow healthier and stronger under the Retilplast covers. Considering the long, hot summers of Bakersfield, it is amazing to discover how much these specialized covers benefit the grape vines.
For the 2019 season, Retilplast will be conducting trials on ARRA 29 in Puglia, Italy with the aim of improving vineyard protection against adverse weather conditions.
Pictured above, the new installation concept is designed to prevent direct and reflected light from reaching the grape vines, hence the vineyard will recieve diffused light via the PolyFilm-Plus covers.
In addition, ARRA 15 and Early Sweet are showing great results under Retilplast covers in Mexico, Brazil and North Africa, where the grape vines have been covered for more than three years.
North American Greenhouses
With fifteen years experience under their belt, North American Greenhouses, based in the US and Mexico, have installed more than 8,500 acres of protected agricultural projects such as greenhouses, nethouses and hoophouse tunnels for fruit and vegetable farmers.
For grape growers, the company’s specialized flat roof greenhouses offer versatility for early or late harvests, resulting in higher fruit quality, harvest uniformity and considerable water savings.
SmartPac
Chilean-based SmartPac company presented their innovative SO2 liners at the field days. The liners are an all-in-one product designed to replace the SO2 device, liners and absorbent pads.The SO2 liners are used to keep fruit fresh in transit and storage.
For a number of years, we have been using the SmartPac liners and this year ARD performed a cold storage evaluation between SmartPac liners and regular liners, the results of which were presented at the field day and can be seen in the pictures below.
With SmartPac liners every berry is exposed to a low but stable and even concentration of SO2 during storage time, drastically reducing the risk of bleaching due to high SO2 and also the risk of mold development due to absence of SO2 in some points of the box.
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This variety has large, elongated, intense cherry-coloured berries. With excellent sugar-acid balance, cherry flavour and sensational crunch, ARD 36 CHERRY CRUSH™ is a variety that delights in appearance, taste and eating experience. Proven to be fully rain resistant, the variety also has excellent fertility and exceptional storage ability. It is the ultimate long shipping variety with the best shelf life in the industry. CHERRY CRUSH™ has it all!
Discover the ultimate red variety with ARD 35 – FIRE CRUNCH™. This early-mid variety boasts a unique fire-red colour and crunchy, large berries with a low acid level and well-balanced taste that provide a supreme eating quality. It’s a fertile and easy-to-grow variety with full uniform colour that stays red on the vine, and doesn’t get dark over time, making harvest timing very flexible. This variety also withstands rain and offers unparalleled hanging ability, cold storage capability and shelf-life capacity.
This early red seedless variety offers an exceptional eating quality. It has large, crunchy berries, a medium sized bunch and boasts an excellent natural, full, deep red colour. Although it ripens at the same time as Flame, ARRA Passion Fire surpasses its early counterpart in all other parameters. Good productivity, extraordinary hanging ability, shipping durability and shelf life make it a choice early red.
This very early red variety with its large, sweet berries, ripens naturally 10 days before Flame. The striking full red colour, together with extreme crunch and harmonious flavour make this red a must-have variety. Fire Kiss has proven to be very fertile and grower friendly, as well as bearing great post-harvest and shipping qualities.