The plantation also has an experimental aspect, with 6 hermaphrodite varieties.

The Institute of Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training (IRFAP), attached to the Agricultural and Fisheries Improvement Services (SEMILLA) of the Regional Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, has planted more than 100 carob trees on the Sa Granja estate. It is a plantation with 11 different varieties of carob trees, and about 10 trees per variety.

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The Balearic Islands account for around 30% of Spanish carob production, and its cultivation is expanding year after year, mainly due to the high price of locust beans in recent seasons. According to the manager of SEMILLA, Georgina Brunet, “carob is a drought-resistant tree and its CO2 retention capacity encourages its adaptation to climate change”. Brunet added that this project “aims to respond to a need in the professional sector for plant material for grafting productive varieties that have a high yield of locust beans”.

Thus, the planting carried out in Sa Granja has a double objective. On the one hand, to provide gems of plant material of selected varieties of carob to the professional sector for grafting. The varieties chosen are H2-12, Turis, 8P, Bord Granja, Capoll Curt, Roja de Eivissa, Sa Llebre, de’n Pau, des Mestre, Rojal and Bugadera. Among the varieties planted, there are some that come from selection programmes, and others that are Mallorcan and one that is Ibizan.

The plantation also has an experimental aspect, as 6 hermaphrodite varieties have been selected, i.e. they have both male and female flowers, and could therefore be self-fertilising. The experiment will consist of assessing the self-fertility of the hermaphrodite varieties of carob and the self-fertilisation capacity of their flowers, as well as assessing the fruit production capacity of the fertilised flowers.