Hot New Strawberry Varieties

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The Strawberry Improvement program at the University of California-Davis (UC-Davis) has released two new short-day strawberry cultivars with marked improvements over staple varieties. The new strawberries, named Benecia and Mojave, will compete with Camarosa, a standard variety in California for the past 16 years, and complement or replace Ventana, which was released in 2001, according to UC-Davis pomologist Kirk Larson, who selected Mojave. Doug Shaw, professor and small fruit geneticist, selected Benecia.

“These cultivars exhibit uniformly high productivity, similar to the cultivar Ventana, and are adapted to early fall planting and winter production systems. These cultivars have overall fruit quality superior to Ventana, and with appropriate treatments can produce 3 to 4 pounds of fruit per plant during the December to June fruiting period.”

The disease resistance profile is somewhat variable, he says. Mojave is resistant to verticillum wilt but susceptible to Phytophthora crown rot (Phytophthora cactorum), while Benecia is tolerant to Phytophthora but susceptible to verticillum.

Time And Trials

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Larson and Shaw first saw these varieties in 2005, and have had them under close observation for the past five years. A dozen growers throughout the state have trialed the varieties in their fields for the past three years.

“We sense that certain varieties might look good, but it isn’t until we put them in grower trials that we really know for sure,” Larson says. “The selection process takes an average of five to six years. It used to take eight to 10, so it’s moving faster.”

According to the UC-Davis Strawberry Breeding Program website (www.innovationaccess.ucdavis.edu/
strawberry/program.htm
), its “comprehensive pomological research in strawberry plant breeding and production physiology in the University of California (Davis) Department of Plant Sciences has resulted in cultivars and cultural practices that are directly responsible for the state’s position as the world’s largest strawberry producer, accounting for more than 80% of the strawberries produced in North America. The competitive position currently held by California strawberry growers can be traced to use of cultivars that have broad environmental adaptation, use of innovative production systems that maximize yield, fruit quality, and harvest efficiency, and use of pest- and pathogen-free soil environments.”

The goal of the program is to develop short-term breeding or cultural solutions to California strawberry growers’ most pressing production problems, though the understanding of these problems is constantly evolving. Program objectives will remain focused on the development of improved cultivars that meet the specific needs of the California industry, and simultaneous development of the cultural systems required for optimizing their performance, according to Shaw and Larson.

Meanwhile, the new varieties will be limited to California growers only for the first two years of production, a stipulation dictated to the university by the California strawberry industry, Larson says. Currently, licensed growers are getting ready to plant daughter plants for propagation, and young plants will be distributed in the fall to California growers.

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