Strawberries. James F Hancock
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In the middle of the 20th century, a number of particularly active breeding programmes emerged in Scotland, England, Germany and the Netherlands. In Scotland, R. Reid developed a series of varieties resistant to red stele, utilizing American ‘Aberdeen’ as a source of resistance. His variety ‘Auchincruive Climax’ (1947) dominated acreage in Great Britain and northern Europe until its demise due to June yellows in the mid-1950s. He then released ‘Redgauntlet’ (1956) and ‘Talisman’ (1955), which served as suitable replacements. In England, D. Boyle produced a large series of varieties with the prefix ‘Cambridge’. ‘Cambridge Favourite’ (1953) became the most important of the group and dominated the acreage in Great Britain by the 1960s. It is still planted somewhat today, due to its productivity, firmness, shippability and capping ease. In Germany, R. von Sengbusch produced a ‘Senga’ series, of which ‘Senga Sengana’ (1954) became paramount. ‘Senga Sengana’ was widely planted for its processing quality and is still important in Poland and other eastern European countries. In the Netherlands, H. Kronenberg and L. Wassenaar released several cultivars, of which ‘Gorella’ (1960) made the greatest impact. It was noted for its size, bright-red glossy skin and red flesh.
BREEDING OUTSIDE EUROPE FROM 1800 TO 2000
The greatest concentration of breeding activity outside of Europe until the modern period was in the USA, although the Japanese produced two important varieties: Dr H. Fukuba’s ‘Fukuba’ (1899), noted for its large size and high flavour (Darrow, 1966), and K. Tamari’s ‘Kogyoku’ (1940), respected for its vigour, earliness and fruit size (Mochizuki, 1995). ‘Fukuba’ was the most important variety in forcing culture until the early 1970s. ‘Kogyoku’ was one of the leading field-grown cultivars after World War II, until it lost importance to the American import ‘Donner’ in the 1950s (Darrow, 1966).
Charles Hovey, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, produced the first important North American cultivar ‘Hovey’, by crossing the European pine strawberry ‘Mulberry’ with a native clone of F. virginiana in 1836 (Fig. 2.7). It was the first variety of any fruit to come from an artificial cross in America and for some time made the strawberry the major pomological product in the country (Table 2.2; Hedrick, 1925).
Fig. 2.7. The ‘Hovey’ strawberry. (From Wilhelm and Sagen, 1974.)
Table 2.2. Dominant Fragaria × ananassa cultivars in North America before 2000. (From Darrow, 1966; Hancock, 1996; Brooks and Olmo, 1997.)
‘Hovey’ often proved to have low fruit set, the basis of which led to considerable horticultural debate (Fletcher, 1917). It had been known in Europe since 1760 that strawberries could have separate genders, but Americans were not aware of this work and for a decade from 1840 to 1850 debate raged among horticultural societies as to the nature of ‘Hovey’s’ unproductiveness. Hovey himself originally asserted that his cultivar was perfect, but eventually had to recant under pressure from Nicholas Longworth of Cincinnati, Ohio.
The release of ‘Hovey’ stimulated a great deal of interest in strawberries throughout the country and numerous private individuals began making crosses and growing seedlings. The variety that had the largest immediate impact was ‘Wilson’ (1851), developed by James Wilson in New York. It played an important role in expanding the North American strawberry industry from a few thousand hectares to hundreds of thousands. It produced large, dependable crops even under indifferent care and its flowers were bisexual, eliminating the need for a pollinator. The fruit of ‘Wilson’ were larger and more attractive than that of its predecessors and were firm enough to ship long distances. Unfortunately, its flavour was very sour but its other strengths led to the liberal use of the sugar bowl.
Several important cultivars were developed in the late 1800s and early 1900s to meet the need of the burgeoning strawberry industry (Darrow, 1937, 1966). Some of the most successful were W. Parmalee’s ‘Crescent’ (Conneticut, 1876), J. Sharpless’s ‘Sharpless’ (Pennsylvania, 1872), Neunan’s ‘Neunan’ (South Carolina, 1868), M. Ewell’s ‘Marshall’ (Massachusetts, 1890), C. Loftus’s ‘Banner’ (California, about 1890), E. Cruse’s ‘Aroma’ (Kansas, 1892), J. Beaver’s ‘Nich Ohmer’ (Ohio, 1898) and S. Cooper’s ‘Pan American’ (New York, 1898). ‘Neunan’ was a seedling of ‘Wilson’ and became the standard in the south-eastern USA in the late 1800s because it was a little less dark and a touch firmer than ‘Wilson’ in hot climates. ‘Crescent’ and ‘Sharpless’ were second and third to ‘Wilson’ in popularity from 1880 to 1900. ‘Wilson’ was pistillate and ‘Sharpless’ was commonly used as its pollinator. ‘Marshall’ was only a modest success in the east where it was bred, but it became a major variety in the Pacific Northwest and California from 1905 to almost 1960, because of its high flavour and how well it could be frozen and preserved. ‘Pan American’ was notable as the first really successful everbearing variety. Although it was widely planted in gardens, its greatest importance was as a parent and was a major source of the everbearing trait until Powers and Bringhurst utilized native populations of F. virginiana ssp. glauca(see Chapter 8, this volume). ‘Nich Ohmer’ was not successful in its state of origin, Ohio, due to its low vigour, susceptibility to leaf spot and its small, only fair-flavoured fruit, but it was widely grown in California in the 1920s and 1930s because of its long fruiting season. It is in the genetic background of most successful California cultivars.
‘Banner’ (‘Sweet Briar’) was discovered in an abandoned strawberry patch by C. Loftus on his farm in Sweet Briar, California (Wilhelm and Sagen, 1974). Its early importance was limited due to insufficient runner production, but it rapidly grew in prominence in the Central Valley from 1904 until the mid-1930s, when it was found that it could be successfully propagated in northern California. The berries of the ‘Banner’ strawberry were large, regularly conical in shape, bright red and had a wonderful taste and fragrance. It may have been a seedling or runner descendant of ‘Marshall’.
Some of the most important varieties developed in the early part of the 20th century (Darrow, 1966) were Rev. J. Reasoner’s ‘Dunlap’ (Illinois, 1900), N. Gohn’s ‘Missionary’ (Virginia, 1900), R. Cloud’s ‘Klondike’ (Louisiana, 1901), A. and E. Howard’s ‘Howard 17’ or ‘Premier’ (Massachusetts, 1915) and J. Kuhn’s ‘Aberdeen’ (New Jersey, 1923). ‘Dunlap’ dominated acreage in the northern states and Canada for the first 50 years of the century, because of its extreme hardiness. It was used widely as a parent in everbearing breeding, even though it was a short-day type. ‘Missionary’ was also important for about 50 years, as one of the first really good low-chilling varieties, performing well even in the