Frost resistant fruit trees are the result of years of research and plant breeding

The trees in the orchard, which was originally established with support from Kuopio Naturalists' Society, are abundant with fruit.

“Thanks to a warm summer, this autumn’s harvest has been excellent. It is great to get to taste our own new pears, for example, which have been grown from seeds planted eight years ago,” says Researcher Harri Kokko from the Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences.

“Initially, I worked on plant breeding in the university’s garden. These are the first offspring grown from seeds. I think this is the tastiest pear in the garden.”

The Pellesmäki Orchard is based on a project carried out by Kokko and his colleague Mikko Nissinen at the University of Kuopio, describing the fruit varieties included in the gene bank. At that time, particular attention was also paid to varieties that thrive in a continental climate and are resistant to frost. Russia has a long tradition of growing of fruit trees. As the climate changes, there will be a need for new, increasingly resilient varieties also in Finland.

The trees in the Pellesmäki Orchard are highly resistant to frost: there hasn’t been any frost damage in years. Scab resistance is also an important feature. There is no need to use any pesticide, because the fungal disease can’t infect resistant varieties in the orchard.

“The first twenty new scab resistant apple tree seedlings were chosen by me back then. They have been selected using a PCR test, and they carry the scab resistant Vf-gene,” Kokko explains.