Nov 14, 2024

New varieties help Florida strawberry growers

Following hurricanes Helene and Milton, Florida growers are showing resilience in ensuring fresh Florida strawberries are available this season.

Through hard work and efficient problem-solving, Florida growers have planted the fruits consumers enjoy from December through April.

Kenneth Parker, executive director of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association, works regularly with University of Florida breeders, Extension agents and growers to help communicate the needs of the Florida strawberry industry.

Growers are doing their best to ensure Florida strawberries are available for the holidays.

“As a general rule of thumb, Florida growers aim to complete planting each year around the first of November,” Parker said in a news release. “For the most part, the industry has held to this standard through the hard work, dedication and perseverance of both our growers and farmworkers.”

Following the storms, some areas required more effort to get the fields back in working order to complete planting. Growers had to wait until the water receded before they could begin their recovery efforts, Parker said in the release.

“There is no way of accurately predicting yield each season due to all the variables that determine this number,” he said in the release. “But we look forward to meeting the demands of consumers this growing season with the freshest, highest quality strawberries.”

Call it coincidental timing, but with the flooding, some growers are now planting two new UF/IFAS strawberry varieties that resist a disease that the plants can get from too much moisture in the soil.

UF/IFAS professor and strawberry breeder Vance Whitaker of UF/IFAS’ Gulf Coast Research and Education Center in Balm, Florida, has developed the trademarked Ember and Encore varieties, bred to resist phytophthora root rot. The resistance could prove helpful to strawberry yields, given the volume of rain that fell and how wet the soil is, Whitaker said in the release.

Some plants experienced a lot of water. The flooding is most likely to kill a plant that’s susceptible to root diseases, according to the release. The new varieties should help growers maintain their yield as well as provide a new level of fruit quality, according to the release.

In their first year of commercial use, the two varieties make up about 10% of the 14,000 acres of strawberries in Florida. While that’s not a huge percentage, Whitaker expects the acreage to rise in future years.

“We have a favorable weather outlook for the harvesting season,” he said in the release. “People should expect a typical Florida strawberry season.”

It took about four years to develop the new cultivars and release them to commercial farms, which is normal for new varieties. But the time spent is well worth the effort, even if it’s sometimes in inclement weather, Whitaker said in the release.

“The breeding program had to get through the hurricanes and get our trials planted, ultimately for the benefit of the industry,” he said in the release. “We’re all in this together. We support the growers, and they’ve been supportive of us.”