ISHS Acta Horticulturae 439: III International Strawberry Symposium
CULTIVATING THE DAY-NEUTRAL CULTIVAR SELVA UNDER BELGIAN CONDITIONS |
| Authors: | P. Meesters, A. Pitsioudis |
| Keywords: | strawberry, Fragaria x ananassa, cultivation, extended picking season, off-season production, loam |
| Abstract:
Since 1970, the Belgian strawberry growers have tried to extend the picking season. To delay the picking season in sandy soils, cold-stored plants of the Dutch June-bearing cultivar Elsanta are commonly used. In loamy soils, in the eastern part of Belgium, there is a trend towards the use of everbearing cultivars for a supply of strawberries after ‘Elsanta’. In 1990, the Californian day-neutral cultivar Selva became the main cultivar. About 11% of the total Belgian production (40,000 tons) already consists of ‘Selva’. Because of the temperate climate, ‘Selva’ has good vegetative growth and produces very firm, uniform and large sized strawberries from the middle of July until about the middle of October. In contrast with the earlier used Dutch cultivars Ostara and Rapella, there is no need to remove any excess flowers on ‘Selva’. The yield of ‘Selva’ is rather low. Several experiments were carried out to improve the yield in Belgian conditions. Planting fresh plants in autumn led to higher yield than frigo plants planted in spring. Also planting on a plastic mulch and using larger plants gave better results. To reduce hand labour, there were experiments done to replace the manual removal of the first flowers by mowing the plants in spring. The results of mowing were good except in the cold spring of 1995. Attempts to advance the crop by covering the plants failed. Other disadvantages of ‘Selva’ are that fruits may be too firm and have poor flavour in periods with low light intensity. | |
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