October 2019 - 5

DRISCOLL'S
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maybe across the railroad, they do a little
bit different, " Renteria said in outlining
the challenges of finding a productive
selection. " Some varieties like heat, others
don't. That's why we have different growers'
locations, because we want to see how the
varieties respond over there. Based on that,
we can recommend certain planting days. "
Amy Edmondson is a research
associate in Driscoll's strawberry
breeding program.
" The main purpose of the test plot
here is to provide new varieties for our
Watsonville and Salinas growers, both
conventional and organic, " Edmondson
said. " We have 25%-30% organic acreage
in this district, and it's increasing. The
purpose of our non-fumigated half of the
test plot is to find the strongest selections. "
" Pests and diseases build up when you
can't fumigate, so we want to select the
strongest from our populations, " she said.
" Every year we evaluate at least 25,000
unique individual seedlings, the first
step at seeing new germplasm. We grow
them in the non-fumigated. There's two
copies of each plant. If one plant dies and
doesn't do well, we move on. We want the
strongest to survive. "
Edmondson said the seedlings are
observed every week from May to
September, with a taste hunt underway
for the best selections. " We're screening
out all of the bad ones so you guys
don't have to suffer. Only the best ones,
hopefully, make it to the market. "
Of the 25,000 seedlings, roughly 1%
are advanced to the next level - so maybe
250 seedlings advance to stage ones.
" Stage ones are planted here in our
non-fumed test plot because we want
to get one more year of screening
in a tougher, harsher environment, "
Edmondson said. " We have 10 plants per
plot at the stage one level, as opposed to
seedlings, that only have two plants. Each
year we slightly ramp up the qualities
that we evaluate in the field. The nursery
is ramping up the ones that we advance,
as well. All of this is in preparation for
future commercial introduction. "
From the stage one in the nonfumigated
plots, about 1% - or 25 plants,
will advance to stage two.
" In stage two, we start trialing them
in growers' fields to start getting a
different perspective of how they will
perform, " she said. " Different growers
grow things differently. "
She said commercial growers are
dialed into whatever is on their acres,
coming from the test plots. " It gives us
an idea of how other people will grow
our plants and see how they will perform
in different environments and different
microclimates. Here, we're a little bit
inland, so it's warmer. We have pretty
heavy clay soil. A Salinas test plot where
we trial is cooler, foggier and different
soil. We also trial the large organic Salinas
test plot, which is almost pure sand that
the plants are growing in. It's also a nice
and cool climate. We want the most
information and data we can collect. "
As the trials reach stages two through
four, researchers collect flavor data and
shelf-life data, in addition to yield. " For
seedlings it's only our personal opinions,
and how things taste. Once it reaches
stage two, we start getting public opinion
on flavor, and more yield data.
" This year we have two varieties out
on the growers' field, " Edmondson said.
" We're looking for so many different traits
in these plants. We want good flavor,
obviously. We want nice appearance in the
berries. We want them to last long for the
consumers, be easy to grow for the growers
and easy to harvest for the harvesters. So
no giant plants, with big, bushy leaves
everywhere. We want it to be as efficient
as possible at every level. In the nursery,
if they don't produce runners in order to
vegetatively propagate, then the nursery
isn't great fans of these either, because they
have to produce thousands and thousands
of these per variety. It takes more acres on
their end, so we weigh all of these factors
in while advancing a variety. "
Strawberries are very particular to
their climate and the breeding program
that they came from. " We're making
crosses here in our greenhouses by hand,
based on plants that have done well here, "
Edmondson. " We're focusing on the
Watsonville-Salinas district. "
She said Driscoll's also has a breeding
program in Florida that develops berries
for Florida. Another develops berries for
southern California and Mexico.
" We do cross trials. We will send our
selections that do well here to Florida just
in case something likes being in Florida.
In most cases, things born and bred for
the district, do better in their own district.
" When we make our crosses at the
greenhouse, they are all done by hand, "
she said. " It's a very tedious and slow
job. We have a team of experts who
pollinate our berries. It's all done by
hand in the greenhouse because we
don't want the bees to pollinate things
for us. In a greenhouse we want to
control who the female and male is,
because there's certain traits within
each parent that we like. When you see
a clamshell, all the little seeds on the
outside of the berry are like brothers
and sisters. They all have the same
parents, but they are all unique as well. "
Edmondson said varieties such as
Flamingo and Maverick started " as one
tiny seed on the side of a strawberry
that we slowly over about six years
developed into thousands of plants and
lots of data collected.
" Each year we want a diverse mix of
varieties in case something happens, "
she said. " Some are susceptible to certain
diseases than others. If you have a really
rainy year, with a lot of phytophthora,
you don't want 90% of your acres
susceptible to that, so we try to balance
it out. You want different varieties with
different timings. You don't want a ton
of fruit in one month, and nothing three
months after that. " VGN
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VGN | OCTOBER 2019 | 5

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October 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of October 2019