Growing Strawberries From Seed
The strawberry sector is facing significant changes, and a crucial part of this transformation will occur at the beginning of the supply chain. This was one of the major topics discussed at the Strawberry Day and the International Soft Fruit Conference in Den Bosch earlier this month. One of these developments is the shift to propagation from seed.
Limgroup introduced its first hybrid for this purpose: Limore. The company is convinced that this will become the industry standard in the coming years.
"The cultivation of a strawberry plant currently takes three years, with a grower placing orders one and a half years in advance. By cultivating from seed, this is shortened to 16 weeks.
This will make a tremendous difference in the market," says Sjoerd Gipmans, from Limgroup, when asked about the impact of transitioning to hybrids on the strawberry market. "There are continuously fresh plants available, making it easier to respond to market demand. If you have to wait three years for plants, you cannot quickly adjust when a buyer requests a new product or additional supply. This is now possible."
Furthermore, plants grown from seeds are all uniform – something not achievable with propagation from cuttings. "Cuttings have different ages, originating from different generations. They are never 100 percent identical. Each seed, on the other hand, has the same starting point: they all start at 0 and grow at a consistent pace into a plant.
As a result, growers work with very uniform plant material, can better control cultivation, and achieve higher yields with a homogeneous harvest pattern."
It is clear that this breeding method is not comparable to the current way of working. Further down the chain, the transition to hybrids also requires changes. Growing from seed offers additional possibilities in terms of hygiene. "You no longer work with living plant material that is continuously propagated from generation to generation. Seed is clean and requires 100% clean cultivation."
Moreover, a crucial detail is that seeding is necessary, something current strawberry plant growers are not accustomed to. "But you also want flowering in your plant, and vegetable growers are not used to that. There is actually no plant grower fully equipped to cultivate in this way," says Vincent Deenen .
Therefore, a consortium has been established to bring together the knowledge and expertise of vegetable and strawberry plant growers. Currently, the first part of the cultivation takes place at Gipmans Young Plants , and the final part of the cultivation occurs at Van der Avoird Trayplant BV and Van den Elzen Plants .
Holiday
9 个月F1 are not new, it all comes down from the right balance of taste/ transport tolerance, sounds easy but very few best-sellers in a life of breeder
Quality is conformance to requirements! It begins in the field by doing things right the first time and all the time!
9 个月Very interesting and convincing approach!
Global Organic Agripreneur /Management Executive @MellohPharmz Farm/Food Security is my Priority
9 个月I love the idea of starting them from seeds.... Would you be interested in a Joint Venture opportunity to set up Strawberries production on a Caribbean island? The average cost per pound for Strawberries at this point is above $10.00 usd per lb. We could capitalize on that market and help to significantly reduce the average price paid by the public.... If interested.... Feel free to reach out.... Email :[email protected]