What this strawberry needs is a name that says "dry and sandy"...

The University of California strawberry breeding program (the southern branch, based in Irvine) has released two new strawberry varieties, Benicia (formerly C225) and Mojave (formerly C227).

The southern California strawberry industry is kind of hurting these days, with increasing yields and increasing acreages (as well as competition from Mexico and elsewhere) pushing down prices and cutting into profit, so I'm sure these will be welcomed, though the last release from this program, 'Palomar', has not really caught on.

I've tried these varieties, when they were in limited trials, and I have to say I don't see any of them really setting the world on fire, though. The flavor was definitely better than 'Ventana', which is the current standard, but didn't exactly knock my socks off, and the fact that they're actually talking about how soft 'Mojave' is seems like a bad, bad sign. I'll take anything that pushes the quality standards above 'Ventana', which is an insult to strawberries, but since yields appear to be no higher they're not likely to be much of a fix for what ails the industry.

(And yeah, I've got a certain bias here, but I call 'em like I see 'em)

There's much more info on these in this presentation, but they're not named yet, so just look for the testing numbers (poor C226, so close to a shot at the big time).

Thanks...

Aww...thanks guys. It's nice to feel missed. I can't make any promises, but as spring starts to sneak up I feel myself thinking more of the wonders of the fruit world beyond my own job...

Oh, and Adam...just call me "Evil". I consider us colleagues.

And Japanese Comment Spam Guy...thank you for standing by me through all the unproductive months. While other people remained silent as I posted nothing, you kept up a steady dialog with yourself and all those people who would click on a random link labeled "SEX" in the midst of a block of Japanese. Thank you for steadfast faith in my blog and the fact that I was far too lazy to delete you on a regular basis.

(Blogger appears broken at the moment, so you get this as a post, not a comment).

In the meantime, have another Canadian 'Red Prince' article.

How do you like them apples? (Canadian Business)

More later, promise.

The Red Prince (or: Just in case you thought I'd died)

Just came across this article on a new(ish) apple variety and thought it was kind of interesting...always happy to see these sort of things appearing in the mainstream press, even if it comes with the obligatory discussion of HoneyCrisp which I'm getting a tad tired of.

The invention of an apple: The Red Prince (National Post)

Sorry to neglect things around here...maybe this will be the start of a resurgence?

New strawberries from the University of Florida

I added these to the "New Cultivars" section in the sidebar a while ago, but this is the first article I've seen on the new U.F. cultivars, Radiance and Elyana:

Safeguarding Strawberries (American Vegetable Grower)

I saw plants of both these varieties last week, and I was struck by how odd a plant 'Radiance' is. It's got sort of a soft, floppy look, like it's just slightly water stressed.

'WineCrisp' Scab Resistant Apple

The cooperative apple breeding program of Purdue, Rutgers, and University of Illinois (aka PRI) has a new release: Wine Crisp.

WineCrisp--New Apple 20 Years in the Making (University of Illinois)

I have a sneaking suspicion that the name is a thinly-veiled attempt to capitalize on the popularity of 'HoneyCrisp', but it's not like the University of Minnesota owns the concept of crispness I suppose.

The PRI cooperative has released a lot of varieties over the years, although probably the only one I ever saw with any frequency was Gold Rush (an interesting apple in that it is far better after months of storage than it is fresh, at least in my opinion). The main emphasis of the program has always been disease resistance, especially scab resistance. WineCrisp (and many other scab resistant cultivars) use the Vf gene.

I wrote up a whole big thing on the inheritance of major gene resistance to scab, but it got involved enough that I decided not to leave it attached to this, but rather to to A) finish it, and B) take advantage of actually having something written and available that fits as a "Fruit Genetics Friday" entry, so maybe I'll roll it out later this week.

Primocane-fruiting black raspberries, revisited

I was pleased to find a note in my e-mail this morning from Pete Tallman, developer of the 'Explorer' black raspberry. I mentioned 'Explorer' two years ago (have I really been at this that long?) as an exciting development in a crop in which very little breeding has been done (and, frankly, very little breed success obtained).

Unfortunately, 'Explorer' has not really been a success. I've seen it twice, both times under tunnels: once in Pennsylvania, where it had virtually no fruit and a powdery mildew problem, and another time in upstate New York, where the plants looked healthier but fruit set was still poor, though better. I was rather disappointed, as I'd been pretty excited about the thing.

Tallman's message today explains a big part of the problem: 'Explorer' is not self-fertile. Apparently his field featured things that flowered and provided adequate pollen at the right time, so the problem was never evident under his conditions. This fits with what I saw: the tunnel at Penn State where I saw it had, if I recall, only one other variety in it, while the one in NY, where it had at least some fruit, had several.

While unfortunate, this isn't entirely shocking, as self-incompatibility is fairly common among wild, diploid Rubus, and 'Explorer' is not far removed from the wild source of the primocane-fruiting trait that Tallman discovered. (Not surprisingly, the trait hasn't persisted very long in most commercial types).

Anyway, all is not lost. Tallman has selected another primocane-fruiting black raspberry, dubbed PT-2A4, which does pass the self-compatibility test, and has other desirable traits compared to 'Explorer'. As he describes it:

"Compared to Explorer, the PT-2A4 berries are larger, higher drupelet count, and smaller seeds. PT-2A4 holds my all-time record for a single primocane black raspberry at 3.82 grams. Admittedly, that's a max berry, not an average, but I gotta track something, and average isn't awfuly interesting. Maybe with a little fertilizer this year I could break 4 grams. Unfortuantely, PT-2A4 hasn't captured the reduced thorniness of Explorer, so there remains further breeding down the road to see if I can tie that trait back in again."

He also included a link to his website, which includes a page for PT-2A4.

New grape rootstocks from the University of California

Five new rootstocks from Andy Walker's breeding program at UC-Davis (cleverly named GRN-1 through 5):

New nematode resistant rootstocks for 2008 (Western Farm Press)

I was particularly pleased to see that GRN-1 is a hybrid of bunch grape and muscadine. Despite lots of talk about Euvitis/Muscadinia hybrids, there really haven't been many releases (I can only think of this and 'Southern Home', as well as maybe a few germplasm releases).

I don't know nearly as much about grape rootstock breeding as I do about the above ground part, but I always enjoy seeing how much wild material is used, and the completely different selection of species they're dealing with: V. champinii, rufotomentosa, monticola, rotundifolia, rupestris, and berlandieri, just in these five releases. Some of these (especially the first three) rarely if ever occur in the pedigrees of fruiting vines.

Now maybe we know why they were keeping the name a secret...

Maybe it's because it's kind of stupid: The new University of Minnesota apple release is named 'SweeTango'.

An Apple Is Born (Epicurious)

Plus: We've entered a new age! YouTube trailers for fruit cultivars!
SweeTango - A Sneak Preview (YouTube)


(Much thanks to the anonymous commenter who noted this on the post below...I thought it deserved more exposure).

All I can say is I hope the apple is better than the name. It's got an encouraging pedigree at least—Honeycrisp x Zestar.

'Honeycrisp' and the U. of Minnesota Apple Breeding Program

Just came across a nice piece on the University of Minnesota apple breeding program:

With Honeycrisp's patent expiring, U of M looks for new apple (CityPages.com)

I thought the article was a decent "layman's" sort of overview of the UMN apple breeding program, and there's certainly plenty of interest in the program these days thanks to 'Honeycrisp', which has seen a surge of popularity unlike anything I've seen for an apple variety in my lifetime. 'Honeycrisp' at one point commanded an enormous premium, though massive plantings have begun to drive prices down (and there are those who consider it to have been grossly overplanted--many of the trees still due to come into production in the next few years. We'll see how that pans out...)

I like 'Honeycrisp' quite a bit, but I have a hard time believing it really ranks with Google as one of "25 Innovations That Changed The World" (Warning—PDF). It's certainly seen quite the burst of popularity, and yes, it's got an unusual texture, but its basically just a relative outlier on an existing scale of textures. I'm told there are other varieties with a similar breaking texture out there, such as 'Red Baron' (though admittedly I haven't had them). It's definitely good, and it's definitely interesting, but it's an incremental development, not a revolutionary one.

I think the argument is that it was revolutionary in the sense that it revitalized a lot of orchards in the Northeast and upper Midwest, particularly small family farms, and it did in fact do that to an extent. However, I think that's partly due to good marketing, and partly an element of "right place, right time". Full of varieties 50+ years old and little recent momentous development, the market was ripe for something new in the way of apples, and 'Honeycrisp' was distinct enough to fill that niche.

I'm still wondering what the newest UMN apple release is going to be named--last time I spoke to some one who'd heard the name, they treated it as though it was secret on par with a nuclear launch code (even while admitting it was being used freely in some circles). So it better be good.

Update: I noticed that the USDA site on 'Honeycrisp' that I linked to has old, incorrect pedigree--Macoun x Honeygold. This was disproven via molecular fingerprinting some years ago (this was actually the subject of the second Fruit Blog post ever). One parent is 'Keepsake', the other unknown.

I've been entertaining myself playing with grape marker data from the USDA, checking out possible parents for old American cultivars. That's how you know you're a big fruit geek--when you spend hours comparing pedigree data for fun...

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Eurosemillas' secret California strawberry breeding program?

I saw this a while back and didn't say anything, but I came across this article again and thought I'd post it, because its ridiculousness amuses me:

Company from Cordoba creates five new varieties of strawberries (FreshPlaza)

Why is this ridiculous? Look at the names:

• Palomar
• Monterey
• Albión
• Portola
• San Andreas

Sound familiar? Maybe because, through sheer bizarre coincidence, the University of California has released varieties with the exact same names! What a crazy world, huh?

(Except the Spanish seem to have felt the need to put an accent mark on the "o" in Albion--kind of odd, since everyone I know puts the accent on the first syllable...)

Eurosemillas is the international licensee for all the U.C. strawberry varieties, but I'm not sure the rights involved in that include the right to claim to have actually bred the varieties. Although I suspect it pains the European ego slightly to be growing so much of American varieties.

July 2008 Fruit Patent Round Up

Fruit cultivar patent applications published last month....

KIWI:
'Skelton A16' - A moderately early, small-fruited kiwi variety from New Zealand. (You know, my company does it too, but doesn't it defeat the purpose of the patent comparing the new variety to other varieties if you compare it only to your own proprietary varieties, or in this case, breeding selections? I mean, the point is that you can establish identity by making comparisons--but if one interested party controls all plants of the relevant standards, doesn't that make it kind of pointless? (Not that the whole exercise isn't rendered about 98% moot by DNA fingerprinting...)
'Skelton A19' - Another moderately early New Zealand kiwi variety from the same program.
'Skelton X78' - Midseason kiwi variety, also from New Zealand from the same cross as A19.

APPLE:
'Lady Laura' - A limb mutant of 'Cripps Pink' featuring more intense and early coloration.
'Orion' - A Czech triploid variety from the cross of 'Golden Delicious' x 'Otava'.

SWEET CHERRY:
Royal Lynn - An early, low chill, cherry from the Zaiger program in Modesto, CA. From a cross between a proprietary selection and 'Royal Lee'.
PC8007-2 - A firm and flavorful sweet cherry variety from Washington State University.

PRUNUS (COMPLEX HYBRID):
'Coral-Cot' - Another Zaiger hybrid. Talk about complex! [[Prunus armeniaca x ((Prunus salicina x (Prunus salicina x Prunus armeniaca) x (Prunus salicina x Prunus armeniaca))] x Prunus armeniaca] Assuming I transcribed that right. It's something like that, anyhow. Basically, it's a pluot.

NECTARINE:
'Red Ryan' - A low chill Zaiger nectarine from a cross of a breeding selection and 'Red Roy'.

GRAPE:
'Sugrathirtythree- A seedless proprietary variety from the SunWorld program.

STRAWBERRY:
'Palomar' - A short day variety from UC, intended for the southern California production district. A cross of 'Camino Real' x 'Ventana'.

PEAR:
'Todd' - A russetted limb sport of 'Bosc'.

Kiwis on the extremes

In the comments on a recent message, Brandon mentions wanting to grow kiwis in Florida. Most commercial kiwis are 'Hayward'--but 'Hayward' requires roughly 800 hours of chilling (time between 32° and 45°F). That's probably nearly twice what Gainesville (where he is) is getting.

There are many low-chill varieties, though. All of the following are described as requiring 250 or less chill hours:

Vincent—Produces large crops of smallish brown fruit
Dexter—An Australian variety, medium in size, slightly elongated, quite hairy
Abbott—Small to medium, oval, dark brown, long, dense hairs
Allison—Similar to 'Abbott'
Elmwood—Extremely vigorous, produces large kiwi-shaped fruits.
Bruno—Large, long, cylindrical, dark brown, with short, dense hairs. Light green flesh, good flavor.
Monty—Small to medium fruit, large yields, very late
Tewi—A lower chill seedling of 'Hayward', which it resembles.
Blake—Early maturing, low-chill, and teardrop shaped (supposedly, though I have to say some of the pictures I've seen don't really look it).

Since kiwis require pollination, you'll need to find low chill male, too. Some nurseries will just sell home growers male seedlings, but that's a little risky, because you never know what you might be getting--there's always a chance it won't bloom at the right time, or be horribly disease sensitive, or, in the case of Florida, be too high chill to bloom properly at all. It's probably worth the investment to get a named male cultivar. 'Matua' is that one I most commonly see mentioned for low-chill areas, but Chico No. 3 may work better for really early females.

On the other end of the spectrum is the hardy kiwi (Actinidia arguta) and the "arctic" or "superhardy" kiwi (Actinidia kolomikta). These species can grow in places too cold for the typical kiwis, surviving temperatures down to -25°F, in the case of A. arguta, and -40°F with A. kolomikta. Hardy doesn't necessarily mean winter-proof: hardy kiwis can easily be fooled into breaking bud early, and are sometimes victims of spring frosts.

The fruit isn't what we usually think of as a kiwifruit--a bit more like a grape than a big fuzzy egg, but the flavors are fairly similar, and with relatively thin, fuzz-less skins, you can pop them in your mouth without peeling. Since they don't fit the standard kiwi mold, there have been attempts to market A. arguta under a range of other names: piwifruit, bowervine, tara, yang-tao; but none of these seem to stick.

Some A. arguta cultivars include:
Ananasnaya—A Russian variety whose name means "pineapple-like". (Because hardly anyone who isn't Russian can say the name on the first try, some nurseries call this 'Anna', which is easier to deal with but nowhere near as exotic sounding. Probably the most common variety, it's flavorful and vigorous. There's also a Russian A. kolomikta cultivar under this name, just to confuse things.
Meader—Although I don't know for sure, I'm assuming this was bred by New Hampshire breeder Elwyn Meader, who probably deserves a post of his own one of these days. Supposedly it is available as both a male and a female, which strikes me as odd--I have to assume there are just two different vines with the same name.
Geneva—Supposedly this was propagated from a vine at the NY State Experiment Station in Geneva, NY. I'd like to think this was the female vine growing on the building next to mine when I was there. It very well could be...the only other hardy kiwi there was the male next to it (until the male died). If it's the same thing it's got good flavor and fairly low yields. 'Geneva' is also reported to be a fairly early cultivar.
Issai—A Japanese variety notable for being self-fertile. If I was a hardy-kiwi breeder I'd be all over this one. It's far from perfect, though, as the fruit is small, the vigor is low, and the ripening quite uneven. I've also heard the flavor is uninspiring, and that it's slightly less hardy than some varieties of A. arguta. There are probably at least two self-fertile varieties bopping around under this name.
Ken's Red—Most notable for being, not surprisingly, red. Actually a cross of A. arguta and A. melanandra. Cherry-sized red fruits, sort of squarish.
Dumbarton Oaks—Found on the grounds of Dumbarton Oaks, a Washington, D.C. research institution. Purported to be another early cultivar.

There are assorted males around, but A. deliciosa pollen works for A. arguta so you can double up if you're growing both.

A. kolomikta hasn't been bred much, so the cultivar selection is limited. It's sometimes known as "super-hardy kiwi" or "Arctic Beauty" and is notable for it's incredibly high levels of Vitamin C--20x higher than a similar volume of citrus. Fruit is smaller than hardy kiwi and the vines are harder to establish. They can make nice ornamentals, considering that many have an interesting pink variegation.

Only a couple cultivars are readily available:
Krupnopladnaya—Another beautiful Russian name, this one means large fruit. It's all relative—these fruit are big for A. kolomikta, but not in the general world of kiwi. Generally good and sweet, kind of low in vigor.
Pautske—Good quality, more vigor than Krupnopladnaya.

One Green World has quite a variety of kiwi cultivars, hardy and not (though they don't seem to have any of the low chill ones--they're based in Oregon, after all), though they have what I consider the annoying habit of renaming many of the Russian cultivars and not giving the real names, making it difficult to know anything about what you're buying beyond what they tell you. (The also call all the kiwis Actinidia polygama, which rubs taxonomy geeks like me the wrong way). Still, they've had a pretty good track record with me, and the offer most of the higher chill varieties listed here, and a few more. I don't know a source for many of the low chill varieties (mostly because I haven't spent as much time in low chill places), but Top Tropicals has Vincent, paired with a pollinator, Tomuni, and Rolling River Nursery has Elmwood and Blake as well as some hardy kiwis.

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'Ambrosia' Apple

Just a quick link to an apple article:

And B.C. created Ambrosia (Financial Post)

Ambrosia is one of the many new apple cultivars that have shown up in supermarkets in the last couple years. I'm kind of ambivalent about it--when it's good it's pretty decent (arguably better than its likely parents, Starking Delicious and Gold Delicious), and when it's bad it picks up a lot of the bad characteristics of Delicious.

Still, I'm happy to see there are still apple varieties originating the old fashioned way: as chance seedlings. (You might that think as a breeder I'd prefer them to be the product of a breeding program, but honestly, random luck is much cooler.) (That assumes that you don't consider breeding programs random luck...)

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Tewksbury Baron

Daughter of the Soil may one day turn out to have single-handedly saved 'Tewksbury Baron' apple from extinction, given that it's apparently only in two other places at the moment.

Imagine how many varieties might still be around today if other people had thought the same way?

(The blog is actually a pretty good read, very focused on heirloom varieties and breeding. Unfortunately it's virtually all about vegetables, so it's rarely relevant here...)

Vayro, Marinada, Constantí, and Tarraco Almonds

Four new late-blooming almond cultivars from Spain:

Vayro, Marinada, Constantí, and Tarraco Almonds (HortScience reprint, via IRTA)

'Western Dawn': A New Apple From Australia

Here's a new variety from Western Australia, from a cross of Lady Williams x Gold Delicious:

New WA apple doesn't go brown (The West Australian)

Although it's named 'Western Dawn', in the grand recent tradition of double-naming varieties, it's going to be marketed as 'Enchanted'. Apparently it's browning (oxidation) resistant.

'Galletta' Strawberry

North Carolina State University has released a new plasticulture strawberry, 'Galletta'. I swear this thing was released months ago, but I just stumbled across this thing, and since I haven't been posting I might as well go along with the idea that it's new. For those of you keeping close track of such things, I apologize if I'm horribly behind the times.

NCSU has a fairly long history of strawberry breeding, but I haven't heard too much about the varieties in recent years. Their releases have been a mix of varieties for plasticulture and those for the older matted row system. I remember when the earlier plasticulture variety, 'Bish', was released, but I haven't seen too much of it since.

North Carolina has a decent-sized strawberry industry, but most of it is for local consumption. Despite a number of local varieties, the bulk of the industry seems to focus on California and Florida varieties.

'Galletta', as the story explains, is named for Gene Galletta, who worked as a small fruit breeder at both NC State and the USDA. He died in 2002.

Anyhow, without further ado:

North Carolina Releases New Strawberry Variety (Southeast Farm Press)

Outlaws of Viticulture

In a fit of horticultural xenophobia seven decades ago, the French, followed by much of Western Europe, decided that they could not trust the free market and people's tastes to choose the best grape cultivars. American cultivars, mostly introduced during the phylloxera crisis of the late 1800's, were now forbidden. Minor vinifera cultivars were strictly controlled. Geographic areas were limited to their own specific selections of the great vinifera wine cultivars. To me it seems crazy, to them I guess it seemed like preserving national treasure. The government ordered the offending vines torn out, and European viticulture was permanently frozen in an idealized state. Or at least that was the idea.

Defying the law, brave bands of rogue viticulturists persisted in their cultivation of the forbidden cultivars. Varieties like 'Jacquez' (also known as 'LeNoir' or 'Blue French'), an old V. aestivalis hybrid from the American South known for its disease resistance, 'Isabella', one of the oldest American cultivars, as well as V. riparia x V. labrusca hybrids like 'Noah' and 'Clinton'.

Now, with emergence of Eastern European viticulture on the European scene, these brave few see a potential ally in their quest to free European viticulture from these shackles.

Winemakers protect outlawed vines: the grapes of wrath (International Herald Tribune)

(This article is a few years old, but I just found it and believe the issue still exists)

'Aus-Jubilee': the first new Australian pineapple

Not much info here other than it is apparently quite good in most respects and chock full of Vitamin C (though I find these sort of nutritional claims seem strangely dependent on who does the analysis). I think I might of have done a bit better on the name than 'Aus-Jubilee', but I'm not sure anyone cares about pineapple names...there are some being cultivated under selection numbers and the like. It may be that they'd like to trademark the name "Jubilee" which you can't do if you patent it under it (or apply for Plant Breeders' Rights, I suspect).

New pineapple variety to hit market soon (ABC-Rural, Australia)

'Eureka Seedless', a new seedless lemon

Our lemon tree has been incredibly productive this year, so we continually have a basket of lemons sitting in the kitchen and have been giving them away left and right as well, so I've had a fair amount of lemonade and lemon chicken these last few weeks. (I don't know what cultivar it is...a girl in a lab I taught gave it to me in a huge pot because she was moving). I don't see the seeds as a big issue, but people are kind of hyped up about this new seedless lemon, developed in Australia by folks whose plantings have just been completely wiped out by canker eradication (nice to see we don't have a monopoly on that here in Florida):

It's a lemon - without the pips (FreshPlaza)

Of course, seedless lemons aren't that new, really. There was an 'Armstrong Seedless' discovered in 1909, and roughly half a century earlier there was the 'Lisbon'. And the 'Nepali Oblong' probably predates both of them. Not to mention a handful of mystery lemons of undetermined cultivar hanging around, like this one.

Still it's pretty cool.