The Raspberry Breeding Consortium and the East Malling Strawberry Breeding Club aim to help all commercial growers have access to berries that are more resistant to disease, are easier to pick, offer higher yields, and of course, taste great.
The programmes aim to breed berries that are freely available to all commercial fruit growers, whether for pick-your-own, fresh produce production or the processed berry market.
Successful varieties already adopted by the industry include ‘Malling Centenary’ strawberry, and ‘Glen Dee’ raspberry, with growers benefiting from their great taste and ease of picking.
Take your pick
Fruit production is highly labour intensive and very reliant on seasonal labour. Varieties which help improve the ease and efficiency of picking are naturally therefore welcome, so researchers look for varieties that can help improve picking – from raspberries that don’t crumble, to canes that are less thorny.
It’s in the genes
Both strawberry and raspberry breeding programmes now benefit from marker assisted selection, new technology which has been developed with the help of AHDB funding. This technology has allowed breeders to identify specific genes in the plant chromosomes which confer pest or disease resistance and fruit quality traits such as colour, firmness and flavour. This enables them to quickly identify if a newly raised seedling contains these specific genes.
Not only has this gene technology sped up the process of varieties being developed, but it also means growers are ultimately able to be less reliant on chemical use for crop protection.
New varieties from these breeding programmes and promising selections from overseas programmes are also assessed to ensure they’re suitable for our variable UK climate, with trials taking place in Scotland and England.
Did you know?
As part of the Raspberry Breeding Programme, run at the James Hutton Institute:
- 10,000 fruit seedlings are grown a year
- Over 150 different types of raspberry are grown to compare size, colour and taste
- 70-100 crosses will be made every second year, producing 150 seedlings per family
- The programme begins with 8,000 seedlings. Based on their pedigree, families will segregate for different characteristics
The East Malling Strawberry Breeding Club membership runs until 2018 at NIAB EMR, with 265k investment over the 5 year programme.
For more information:
horticulture.ahdb.org.uk