Tomato growers and consumers will be able to enjoy a new type of tricolor cherry tomato. Rapsodia – a new cherry tomato variety from the Genetic Plant Resources Bank (BRGV). Researchers worked for over 20 years to obtain the variety that is awaiting patent approval.
The new variety "promises" a yield of seven kilograms per plant and can grow up to five meters tall in protected spaces.
BRGV specialists detailed that the new cherry tomato variety is in three shades, of medium size, with high firmness. The variety has round fruits, with a specific aroma and taste.
"It is a Kumato-type tomato obtained at the Bank, we provisionally named it 'Rapsodia.' The fruit presents three colors, green, yellow, and reddish-brown, has three shades on the exterior, and the flesh is brown, very tasty. It is a cherry tomato with a weight that varies between 20 and 40 grams, the plant grows significantly and can reach 4–5 meters in height in protected spaces, and almost 1.80 – 2.00 meters in the field. It is a variety resistant to the main pathogens. Likewise, it is very tasty after harvesting the fruits keep very well, have few seeds, and a specific traditional tomato aroma, the production potential per plant is somewhere between 4.5 – 7 kg depending on the development space, and it has a pleasant commercial appearance," said Costel Vînătoru, director of BRGV, to Agerpres.
According to researchers from Buzău, the new tomato variety is valuable from a medicinal point of view because it resists diseases and pests, and treatments are fewer, or it can be successfully cultivated in an organic system, thus we are talking about a healthy production. On the other hand, the biochemical composition of the fruits shows that there are many health-beneficial substances.
Costel Vînătoru also mentioned that the new variety will be launched on the market after obtaining the patent, and the seeds can be reproduced and multiplied by any farmer who wants to grow tomatoes.
Source: agrointel.ro