3 Dec 20

New infrastructures under construction in Brion and Cavaillon stations

Writtern by contributeur

With growing activity at the Brion and Cavaillon stations dedicated to the study of new varieties of vegetable and ornamental species, new infrastructures are being built and will be operational for the 2021 season. 

At the Brion site, in Anjou, in order to complete and improve the existing infrastructures for the testing of new varieties of ornamental species, but also to welcome the new post-Brexit genera and species handled by GEVES, a new greenhouse is being built as well as an outdoor DUS testing platform. 

In detail, the greenhouse will house the national reference collection Chrysanthemum in the form of potted mother plants in a dedicated insect-proof area. As a reminder, GEVES is one of the Examination Offices accredited by the CPVO for the conduct of technical examinations for the granting of European PBR on this species. In addition, this greenhouse will also house the Hydrangea plants during the winter and will allow all the activities of cutting and rearing of young plants in optimal conditions. Finally, the outdoor platform will host all the DUS tests carried out in pots on numerous species such as Caryopteris, Choisya, Chrysanthemum, Dasiphora, Photinia, ... 

 Further south, the Cavaillon station is continuing to invest in renovation and development to cope with the increase in activity for ornamental species and to improve the working means for vegetable species. 

Thus, in addition to 2 shade tunnels and an additional above-ground platform for ornamental and medicinal species, the unit will be able to benefit from 2021 : 

- a greenhouse for the production of vegetable plants (600m²), thus freeing up space for new collections of ornamental and medicinal plants, 

- an observation room (300m²) dedicated to technical examinations on vegetable species, thus enabling the optimisation of fruit flows of all the species studied, 

- a shed (450m²) in order to better manage the storage, preparation and effluents of phytosanitary products, as well as to protect the most sensitive agricultural tools. 

 These developments are being carried out in parallel with the acquisition of an additional 6 ha in order to increase the capacity for field trials on soybean and sunflower in order to adjust our resources dedicated to DUS studies for variety inclusion in the Catalogue and/or the issue of a PBR, but also in the context of post-controls for the official certification of seeds of agricultural species. 

 See you soon for a visit in one or both of these stations !