University of FloridaSolutions for Your Life

Download PDF 
Publication #Circular 1440

New Plants for Florida: Strawberry1

Craig Chandler2

Click here to view the print version.

Florida's strawberry breeding program began in 1948 with Albert Brooks, a plant pathologist. Brooks introduced Florida Ninety in 1952, and it quickly became the dominant variety grown in Florida. Its yields were as much as three times higher than those of Missionary, the variety it replaced, and it had a moderately high degree of resistance to crown rot. Florida Ninety remained the standard variety in central Florida until the mid-1960s, at which time it was replaced by Daybreak, a Louisiana variety susceptible to crown rot, but with better shipping quality than Florida Ninety. During the 1970s and 1980s, growers in west central Florida used mostly University of California varieties. These varieties produced fruit that were acceptable to consumers, but most of them ripened in March and April when fresh market prices were relatively low. In addition, the California varieties were generally quite susceptible to anthracnose fruit rot, a disease that can be devastating in warm, wet weather.

Charles Howard, a plant pathologist at GCREC-Dover, introduced Florida Belle in 1975 and Dover in 1979. These varieties had good resistance to crown rot and were higher yielding than the California varieties when grown in central Florida, but neither was long-lived in the industry because of fruit quality problems.

Plant breeder Craig Chandler introduced Sweet Charlie in 1992. This variety produced higher fruit yields from December through February than any other available variety. It was also the only variety adapted to central Florida that was resistant to anthracnose fruit rot. The percentage of the west central Florida strawberry acreage planted in Sweet Charlie rose steadily from 5 percent in the 1992-93 season to about 50 percent in the 1998-99 season. Concurrently, from 1991 to 1998 the average per-flat price rose from $8.00 to $12.00, acreage rose from 5,400 acres to 6,200 acres, and total value of the crop rose from $109 million to $161 million. Internationally, Sweet Charlie has been grown successfully in many of the world's winter production areas, and plant sales of this variety outside the U.S. and Canada have grown steadily.

The Florida strawberry industry has continued to grow. There are now approximately 7,000 acres in production, with a crop value approaching $200 million. This growth is being fueled, in part, by new variety releases from the FAES breeding program. Earlibrite, Strawberry Festival and Carmine can produce high early-season yields of flavorful fruit, and their fruit have a significantly longer shelf life than that of Sweet Charlie. Strawberry Festival is currently the number one variety in west central Florida, occupying more than 30 percent of the acreage.

For more information about Strawberry varieties, see the following EDIS publications:

HS509 Strawberries in the Florida Garden

HS822 "Strawberry Festival" Strawberry

HS818 "Earlibrite" Strawberry

HS820 'Sweet Charlie' Strawberry

Tables

Table 1. 

Strawberry varieties produced at FAES.

Variety

Date of Release
Florida Ninety

1952
Florida Belle

1975
Dover

1979
Sweet Charlie

1992
Rosa Linda

1996
Earlibrite, Strawberry Festival

2000
Carmine

2002

Footnotes

1.

This document is part of Circular 1440, a publication of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, the Agronomy Department and IFAS Communication Services, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Publication date August 2003. Originally pubished as a booklet by IFAS Communication Services June 2003. Visit the EDIS Web Site at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2.

Craig Chandler, Professor, Horticultural Sciences Department, Gulf Coast REC-Dover, FL, Florida Cooperative Extension Service. Circular 1440 is edited by Richard L. Jones, Mary L. Duryea, and Berry J. Treat, Florida Agricultural Experiment Station. Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611.

Florida Agricultural Experiment Station, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Richard L. Jones, Dean for Research, publishes this information to further programs and related activities, available to all persons regardless of race, color, age, sex, disability or national origin. Information about alternate formats is available from IFAS Communication Services, University of Florida, PO Box 110810, Gainesville, FL 32611-0810.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Millie Ferrer-Chancy, Interim Dean.