Researchers for the University of California, Davis Strawberry Breeding Program are test growing new varieties on a quarter acre of farmer Tom Ramirez's Elkhorn Berry Farm in Prunedale.
Currently, 68 different varieties are being grown there, and members of the UC Davis breeding program arrived Wednesday 27 April to look at the progress of the fruit and get input from Ramirez and his workers.
And, of course, they were there to taste some of the fruits of their labor, among them Steven J. Knapp, a geneticist who late last year was appointed head of the Strawberry Breeding Program.
“It’s better. It’s aromatic,” he said after biting into one strawberry, which had a peachy flavor he liked.
Later, he noted how thick the cover of green leaves was growing on another variety, which he explained could be a problem for harvesting crews who might have to rummage through the leaves to find the fruit below to pick, slowing their harvesting time.
That’s a particularly important consideration these days, said Ramirez, noting that farm labor has become increasingly hard to get in this region in the past five years, and with California’s minimum wage going up, farmers will have to pay more for that labor.
None of these test varieties have names yet, which isn’t surprising, because the Davis researchers started with 20,000 test varieties and, through initial plantings and research, whittled them down to the 68 here, Knapp said.
And once the research is done in Prunedale and at four additional test grow sites in Salinas, Oxnard and Santa Maria, the best prospects will be planted next year in “strip trials” at larger fields for more testing.
After that, by late next year Davis officials could announce one or more new variates of strawberries that the breeding program will produce and make available for sale to commercial growers, Knapp said.
In fact, the program has been averaging one new variety per year since 1968, and while those variates are primarily developed with California commercial growers in mind, Knapp said the estimated 1.1 billion plants – or “clones” – sold annually go to about 80 countries.
Currently, eight or nine varieties of strawberries are grown commercially in large numbers in the Monterey Bay region, along with another eight or nine proprietary varieties bred by some of the larger berry produces, he said.
Source: thecalifornian.com