Two strawberry varieties from the breeding programme at East Malling Research (EMR) have proven themselves in the difficult production conditions this year, it has been revealed.
Delia, an early season June-bearing variety and crops around a week before Elsanta, and Malling Pearl, an everbearing variety with excellent eating quality, made promising performances.
Chris Hoggard, who has grown Delia for three years in the Yorkshire Wolds, was impressed by his crop. “We achieved more than 12.5 tonnes/acre of Class I fruit this year, which was of good size and firmness, and has all been sold through Asda,” he said.
But one major weakness of Delia is its susceptibility to powdery mildew, he added. “We need to take special care to control powdery mildew, and use early sprays of chemicals such as Fortress and Corbel to ensure good control of the disease,” he said.
Stephen Corrigall, from Lead Ketty Farm, near Dunning, in Perthshire,grew three acres of Malling Pearl this year. “We achieved over 1100g/plant of Class I fruit, which apart from some very large and rather soft early season berries, were consistently of excellent quality,” he said. “The three-acre planting of Pearl produced more than 43 tonnes of fruit and we were very happy with the variety’s performance, particularly in this difficult year.”
“Although we were warned of Malling Pearl’s potential susceptibility to crown rot, we lost very few plants to the disease during the season.”
Corrigall now plans to plant six acres of Malling Pearl in 2008.
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