Yoshiyuki Iizuka shows off a bunch of Tears Red grapes in Ueda, Nagano Prefecture.
A farmer of Nagano Prefecture shipped for the first time this year Tears Red, a new variety of grapes that is about the size of a plum. The average weight of a Tears Red berry is about 50 grams, with some growing to a near-record level of 5 centimeters in diameter and weighing more than 100 grams, compared with an average weight of 15 to 20 grams for large-size grapes. The grapes can be eaten without peeling. Yoshiyuki Iizuka, 66, head of the grapes team of Nagano Prefecture’s fruit trees research group who shipped the variety, said growers hope to promote the big-size grapes as a high-end brand, while coping with remaining issues such as fruit cracking.
A digital scale with a Tears Red grape shows the berry weighs 102 grams.
The grapes are grown by Takashi Sekiguchi, 43, a grape farmer of the village of Ikusaka in Nagano, by crossing Kourgan Rose with Rizamat. The seeds and seedlings of Tears Red were registered in June. The new variety is oval-shaped and its skin color is deep purplish red. Gibberellin treatment is performed to make it seedless. Sekiguchi will be in charge of selling seedlings.