Stock Photo - PRODUCTION - 16 October 2023, Saxony, Wurzen: In the testing center of the Federal Office of Plant Varieties in Wurzen, there are jars with hundreds of apple cores from a decades-old stone collection. for the graduate horticultural engineer, test technician Brigitte Schramm fruit cores serve for comparison with new fruit varieties. On around 25 hectares, some 1,500 fruit varieties are grown, tested, registered and preserved for future generations at Germany's largest facility for pome, stone and soft fruit in the small Saxon town. In addition to the preservation of existing fruit varieties, some of which are centuries old, the number of new registrations for the testing of new fruit varieties for variety protection has increased significantly. Every year, up to 75 applications for variety protection for new varieties are received at the Wurzen federal center, where they are examined by the team of experts in accordance with EU regulations for worldwide use. The testing center in Wurzen was founded more than 120 years ago and is now one of the seven locations of the Federal Plant Variety Office responsible for the protection of varieties of fruit, ornamental plants and vines in Germany. Photo: Waltraud Grubitzsch/dpa. - Wurzen/Saxony/Germany