Tropical Blue, Maverick and Gladiator among ‘standout’ varieties, company said
Global Plant Genetics says its next-generation blueberry varieties have performed well in trials across Northern Hemisphere production sites. According to the company, the standouts were Tropical Blue, Maverick and Gladiator and Sweet Duchess.
“Tropical Blue looks like the preferred variety to replace the significant areas of Snowchaser still widely grown for its earliness in many parts of Europe,” GPG said. “The fruit size, yield and flavour of Tropical Blue is a quantum leap ahead of Snowchaser offering growers and consumers a better alternative to the now-dated variety.”
The company noted that Maverick had also garnered positive feedback. It described the variety as evergreen, with very early and consistent fruit quality and delivering yields often exceeding 4.5kg per plant.
“Clients travelled from all corners of the globe to see this as we wanted to let the genetics do the talking… Maverick is shaping up to be one of the most interesting varieties to enter the blueberry sector, in years,” GPG continued.
Meanwhile, Gladiator has been slightly behind in terms of GPG’s development programme but the company said it is “rapidly became a shining star when people started to see and taste the fruit”.
“Gladiator has been producing 18-22mm berries with perhaps the best bloom and flavour in the industry today. Growers and retailers have been staggered by the fruit quality,” the company concluded.
