Articles
STRAWBERRIES (FRAGARIA)
The crop is enjoyed by millions of people in all kinds of climates including temperate, mediterranean, subtropical and taiga zones.
Most of this widespread popularity has arisen in the last 50 years as breeders have utilized the diverse array of available germplasm to develop new cultivars tuned to widely different environmental conditions.
The most widely planted strawberry species is Fragaria x ananassa Duch. with world production being very close to 2,000,000 metric tons (Scott and Hancock, 1989). Fragaria vesca L. and F. moschata Duch. are also grown commercially, but on a much smaller scale. Fragaria vesca is grown in Europe and North America, and F. moschata is found primarily in Europe.
The U.S.A. is the world’s leading strawberry producer with California producing approximately 80% of the U.S. crop (Scott and Hancock, 1989). Japan ranks second in the world followed by Poland, Italy, U.S.S.R., France, Mexico and Spain.
The industries in the U.S.A. and Spain are actively growing, while production in Italy, Mexico and Poland is on the decline.
The French and U.S.S.R. industries are relatively steady.
California cultivars are the most important in the world for two reasons: 1) California is the highest producing area and 2) the cultivars developed at the University of California are grown in most climates with mild winters (Italy, Florida, Australia, New Zealand, South America, South Africa, Mexico, Spain and Japan). A broad selection of cultivars are grown in the rest of the world.
In northwestern North America, ‘Totem’ and ‘Benton’ are the most important (Lawrence, 1989). ‘Redcoat’, ‘Bounty’, ‘Kent’, and ‘Veestar’ are the most popular in the rest of Canada (Dale, 1989). ‘Apollo’, ‘Allstar’, ‘Earliglow’ and ‘Cardinal’ predominate in southern U.S.A. (Caldwell, 1989). ‘Earliglow’, ‘Allstar’, ‘Redchief’, ‘Guardian’ and ‘Honeoye’ are most widely grown in northeastern and central U.S.A. (Galletta, 1989; Luby, 1989).
‘Cambridge Favorite’ is still the most important cultivar in the United Kingdom.