Why Don’t We Hear About Strawberry Varieties?

Well, yes, a year-round treat, anytime, there is still association of strawberries ready for harvest in June in many parts of the country.  Some varieties that are day neutral can bear fruit until October in Florida.

“Florida is especially interesting because they plant in the fall and harvest in the winter,” according to USDA research geneticist Kim Lewers.  But for most types of strawberries, the 6th month of the year is the time for picking and eating.  Did you hear me mention varieties as related to strawberries?  Your reply may have been, ‘strawberries have different varieties’?  The short answer is yes.  Among those are cultivars developed and produced at the Agricultural Research station in Beltsville, MD.

“Blakemore, Red Steel, Tribute and Tristar,” Lewers said. 

And varieties such as Early Glow, Jewel, Sweet Ann and Seascape developed elsewhere.  Yet you say I've never seen a specific strawberry variety promoted in a supermarket or retail outlet.  Lewers said there is a reason for that. 

It's All About Branding

“What the industry calls branding.” 

Perhaps the most common example of branding when it comes to fresh fruits are apples. 

“So when you go to the store and you're looking at apples, you can look for Fuji or you can look for Granny Smith or something like that,” she noted. 

Yet for other types of fruits, such as strawberries, branding is not common. Or perhaps it's even a rare occurrence.

“Apples can be stored for about a year and strawberries only maybe a week," Lewers said.  "We'd like it if you could buy them in the store, and then they'd last until the next time you go to the store. That would be ideal. I think that's why most fruits aren't branded. So, you don't know what variety you're getting when you go to a store.” 

Like any fruit or vegetable with cultivars, various traits are considered in the breeding process and development of new strawberry varieties.  In the case of ARS Beltsville and Kim Lewers' work.

Work Impacts More Than Just Strawberries

“One of our major goals has been natural disease resistance and the other one has been fruit quality, which includes flavor," said Lewers.

With the genetic material for USDA strawberry program available to other breeding programs across the country.

“For example, Driscolls has used our material for improving flavor," she added.  "And the University of Florida has also used our material for improving flavor and the University of California and others, several others have used our material for breathing for disease resistance.”

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