Plantings of the early season low-chill blueberry variety have grown significantly in southern Spain
Global Plant Genetics (GPG) has high hopes for its early season low-chill blueberry variety, Tropical Blue, ahead of the forthcoming Spanish season.
The first commercial plantings – now two years old – are showing their full potential in terms of fruit set and yield expectations are high for the first part of the season in Southern Europe, the company said.
“The variety started to flower around one month earlier than last year and the first commercial harvests are expected to start in late December, putting it forefront of the industry in terms of earliness. In addition to its seasonality, it has sector-leading fruit quality for this time of the season with regards to both size and firmness,” GPG reported.
According to Jamie Petchell, plantings have been ramping up over the past two years, with interest in the variety increasing significantly in recent months – a fact he put down to the variety’s high-quality early season fruit.
Soufiane Lahtati, GPG’s business development manager at GPG said growers in Huelva expect to harvest more than 40 per cent of the fruit for sale between 10 and 25 January, leading to very favourable prices.
Young fields of Tropical Blue that were just six months from planting last year produced close to 3kg per plant of marketable fruit in Spain. This shows the overall potential of the cultivar as plantations become more mature.
GPG described Tropical Blue as a variety with an erect habit and not overly vegetative, which means all the fruit is exposed, reducing harvesting costs. “The fruit size of Tropical Blue ranges from 16mm to 22mm, and the taste is sweet with a slight hint of acidity, making it very pleasant to eat. It has a good shelf-life and excellent post-harvest qualities,” the company added.
