0000000001271285
AUTHOR
Gianluca Baruzzi
UPDATE ON THE SICILIAN STRAWBERRY BREEDING PROJECT
The strawberry industry in Sicily differs from that of Italy’s other southern regions since the particularly warm winter weather results in earlier fruit ripening. Cultivar choice is thus of key importance for the success of Sicily’s strawberry industry. The old cultivar Tudla®Milsei has recently been replaced by cultivars ‘Florida Fortuna’, ‘Florida Festival’, ‘Sabrosa®Candonga’, ‘Naiad®Civl35’ and ‘Nora’ developed by both public and private breeding programs in Florida, Spain and Italy. The strawberry breeding program in Sicily started about 20 years ago in an effort to develop new cultivars well adapted to an area of very low winter chilling, with requirements featuring superior performa…
EFFECTS OF PRE-PLANT SOIL TREATMENTS ON STRAWBERRY IN SICILY
The 2005 ban by Italy of methyl bromide (MB) has resulted in significant crop management difficulties in pre-plant soil dis-infestation. We report two pre-plant soil treatment techniques and their effects on the performance of new cultivars and selections tolerant to the main root pathogens. The plants grown in soil treated with chloropicrin + 1,3 dichloropropene were the most productive. While neither treatment affected average berry weight, soluble solids content or titratable acidity, the treatment × cultivar interaction was significant and fruits from plants grown in treated soil were firmer than control s. Selection PA 260 and cultivar Florida Fortuna were the earliest, three selection…