Tropical fruits soon from Germany?
Researchers give the green light for Upper Bavarian papayas - "There is potential"
Created: 05/25/2022, 09:03
Served the press the first research results: Professor Dr.
Johannes Max (right) and his research assistant Alexander Kunze observe the growth of papayas in the Freising tropical house.
© Lehmann
Exporting tropical fruits from warmer regions to Germany: actually unnecessary, according to scientists at Weihenstephan University.
Freising
– Scientists from the University of Bayreuth and the Freising University of Applied Sciences Weihenstephan-Triesdorf want to use a project to prove that tropical fruits can also grow in Bavaria.
Six months ago you pre-cultivated papaya plants in a greenhouse and recently they moved to a tropical house in Freising.
The first fruits are already hanging from the 150 plants.
Like other tropical fruits, a papaya travels halfway around the world before it can finally be bought in a German supermarket and then possibly – after leaving a considerable CO2 footprint – thrown away.
This doesn't have to be the case, says the Freising University of Applied Sciences Weihenstephan-Triesdorf.
In an extremely exciting lighthouse project at the University of Bayreuth, in which the HSWT has recently been involved, the botanists want to prove one thing: tropical fruits could also grow on a large scale in Bavaria.
Tropical fruits soon from Bavaria: Researchers at the Weihenstephan University of Applied Sciences firmly believe in it
It's hot and steamy in the Freising Tropenhaus - a greenhouse with a humidity of almost 70 percent.
After the papaya plants were pre-cultivated in the normal greenhouse six months ago, they were recently allowed to move into the tropical house.
Around 150 plants, on which the first fruits are already hanging, are going through various photoperiod conditions.
Put simply, it is about how the plants react to how much daylight.
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According to research assistant Alexander Kunze, the Weihenstephan tropical house, which has been in existence since 2014, is still a long way from top use.
One reason for this: In winter, the greenhouse for the papaya plants would have to be heated.
The project leader Prof. Dr.
In the future, Johannes Max will be looking for significantly better insulated greenhouses in order to be able to work more energy-efficiently - although greenhouses per se promise more sustainability for him, because beneficial organisms can be used there in a very targeted manner.
Tropical fruits grow at the Bayreuth site: papayas thrive
But how could tropical fruits thrive in Bavaria without expensive heating threatening another possible CO2 spiral?
The University of Bayreuth provides the answer with its “Klein Eden” project, the tropical house on the Rennsteig.
Incidentally, that's where the idea of growing tropical fruits in Bavaria started.
The advantage of the Bayreuth location: the use of waste heat from a glass factory in the region heats a greenhouse complex in “Klein Eden”, so that tropical and subtropical conditions can be gallantly simulated there.
In inner cities, of course, the waste heat should first be used for apartments, as Johannes Max explained – for more decentralized greenhouse complexes, however, in his opinion, the use of waste heat could be the key to growing everything possible here in Germany and in Freising.
Top quality and low CO2 footprint - Sustainable tropical fruits could soon come from Bavaria
What's more for Max: "Tropical fruits are harvested when they are unripe, and you can taste that too.
For example, anyone who has ever eaten a mango in Thailand knows how little taste an imported fruit has.” And according to Johannes Max, that was what made this project so appealing: “Higher quality and a significantly lower CO2 footprint!” The bigger it is The larger the area and thus the greenhouse with tropical temperatures, the greater the economic success would be, or as Kunze put it: "The potential would definitely be there".
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While tropical fruits have been grown in Bayreuth since 2012, various trials on the growth of tropical fruits have been running at the Weihenstephan University of Applied Sciences since 2014.
"The most successful is the papaya," explained Kunze.
In order to accompany both projects, he commutes back and forth as a doctoral student between Freising and Bayreuth and is therefore active in both cities alternately.
This cooperation is currently scheduled for three years.
Richard Lorenz
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