Classification Of Strawberry Varieties Of The North-West Of Russia

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Long way of selection and improvement

Garden strawberries were, are and will remain the most popular among all berry crops for many years. It attracts gardeners all over the world with its amazing qualities, which, in a rare combination, are collected only in it alone - outwardly attractive, fragrant, healing, fruitful and the fastest.

The origins of the popularity of strawberries lie in the excellent taste of berries, their dietary and medicinal properties, due to the harmonious combination of sugars, acids and vitamins, tender pulp, easy digestibility of the various nutrients it contains. In addition, in comparison with other berry crops, strawberries are distinguished by their high ability for rapid vegetative reproduction, productivity, adaptability and plasticity; that is why it can be cultivated in various soil and climatic zones around the world.

The work on improving the assortment of strawberries is carried out systematically both in our country and abroad. The zoned assortment is periodically updated in each horticultural zone, as the requirements for varieties are increasing due to the improvement of cultivation technologies and consumer demand for the taste and marketability of this valuable berry crop. None of the known varieties can be considered ideal, therefore the problem of improving varieties is constantly relevant in all zones of strawberry cultivation, including in the North-West region of Russia. Here, work on improving the assortment of strawberries is carried out by the Pavlovsk Experimental Station VIR and the Leningrad Fruit and Vegetable Experimental Station, which have been operating for more than 30 years, significantly replenishing and updating the varieties of this crop for the North-West zone and other regions of Russia.

In Russia, strawberries first appeared as a culture in the garden of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich near Moscow in the village of Izmailovo, and already under Peter I, they were brought to the northern capital, where the main place of their cultivation was Tsarskoye Selo district. It was in this district at the end of the 19th century that the Tsarskoye Selo school of gardening and truck farming was organized, on the basis of which, after the establishment of Soviet power, a strong point of the Moscow zonal fruit and berry station (now VSTISP) was created. In 1931, the strong point was renamed into the Leningrad zonal fruit and berry experimental station, and in 1968 - into the Leningrad fruit and vegetable experimental station, which was an industrial research institution in the North-Western region of the RSFSR.

The second research institution for horticulture is the Pavlovsk Experimental Station VIR, organized in the 30s of the last century in the vicinity of Pavlovsk, the collection of strawberry varieties of which was the basis for the selection and use of source material for the selection of this culture and other fruit and berry crops. Until the 30s of the last century, the assortment of strawberries in our country consisted exclusively of varieties of foreign selection: Saxonka, Roshchinskaya, Noble Laxtona, Louise, Victoria, Pozdnyaya iz Leopoldsgall, Apricot, Sharpless.

These strawberry varieties have been zoned in our region. But already in the pre-war time the breeders of the Pavlovsk experimental station of the VIR R. P. Bologovskaya, N. M. Pavlova and Yu. K. Katinskaya created varieties Velikan and Druzhba, and in the post-war period the same Yu. K. Katinskaya received a number of new high-quality varieties, including Pavlovskaya krasavitsa, Leningradskaya pozdnyaya, Novinka, Pozdnyaya iz Pavlovsk, Leningradskaya early, Festivalnaya, Zarya, Shchedraya, Severyanka, Vyritskaya, Olimpiyskaya and Cinderella.

Until 1965, many of these varieties were zoned in the North-West region, and the Festivalnaya and Zarya varieties, outstanding in yield and other qualities, have for a long time occupied a leading position in the zoning of the variety since 1965, not only in our region, but also in many regions. Russia.

At the Leningrad fruit and vegetable experimental station, selection work on strawberries began in 1932 by N. I. Rybitsky, who in the pre-war years created a large number of promising hybrid forms, of which, in the post-war period, he, together with O. A. Medvedeva, were isolated and transferred in 1956. and the State Variety Testing four varieties: Northern Yielding, Large-fruited, Slavyanskaya and Sakharistaya. And in the 60s, O. A. Medvedeva created five more new varieties: Yubileinaya Leningrad, Zhemchuzhnitsa, Purpurovaya, Granatovaya, Zvezdochka, and the Severnaya Yemchuzhnitsa and Zhemchuzhnitsa varieties still remain zoned crops. The first grade is in our region, and the second is in the Saratov region and Kazakhstan.

In subsequent years (1964-1977) at this station, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences E. N. Zhuchkova obtained two very early varieties with excellent taste qualities of berries - Pavlovchanka and Prinevskaya, which were recommended for amateur gardening and are still in demand. amateur gardeners.

At different times in the 50-70s of the last century, in addition to local varieties of Leningrad selection in the zoned variety of the North-West of Russia, which includes eight regions - Leningrad, Pskov, Novgorod, Vologda, Arkhangelsk, Kostroma, Tverskaya, Yaroslavl and the Republic of Karelia - Moscow varieties were included - Komsomolskaya Pravda, Obilnaya, Mysovka, Krasavtsa Zagorya and others; Vologda - Scarlet Dawn, Vologda, Shtaninskaya; foreign - Talisman, Zenga Zengana, Junia Smides, Venta and some others.

Increased requirements for strawberry varieties in the late 70s and 80s predetermined new approaches to the selection of source material - the source of economically valuable traits in the new breeding program of Candidate of Agricultural Sciences GD Aleksandrova, who continued work at the Leningrad Fruit and Vegetable Experimental Station on strawberry breeding since 1979. By this time, thanks to the achievements of breeders both in our country and abroad, a large number of new valuable varieties were obtained that meet the requirements of modern production - donors for use in breeding work. For this purpose, the collection plantations of the experimental station were completely renewed - the gene pool for further selection work.

The purpose of the breeding work was to obtain new varieties of an intensive type - with high winter hardiness, yield, large-fruited, excellent taste and commercial qualities of berries, early maturity, amicable ripening of the crop, and disease resistance. Over the fifteen-year period, the works of GD Alexandrova were designed and transferred to the State Variety Testing of the Krasavitsa, Volshebnitsa, Dinamovka, Udarnitsa, Sudarushka, Divnaya, Tsarskoselskaya varieties.

After leaving the Pavlovsk fruit and vegetable station, she continued breeding work and received several more new varieties, of which the Onega variety was transferred in 1997 for the State Variety Test. The varieties Krasnaya Kapelka, Favorit, Lakomka, Otrada, Original were obtained, but not transferred to the GSI, which are undergoing the stage of variety testing and, along with other varieties of this author, as well as promising varieties of domestic and foreign selection, are multiplied in the Pushkin fruit and berry nursery of the Scientific and Production Center Agrotechnology . Since 1993, the work on selection of strawberries at the Leningrad Fruit and Vegetable Experimental Station was continued by G. A. Kopyl, Candidate of Agricultural Sciences, who submitted the Otnichnitsa, Nakhodka, and Fortuna varieties to the State Variety Testing. Now in agricultural firms, and especially in amateur gardens, about 50 varieties of strawberries are grown. In changed conditions,when amateur gardening becomes the main one, the selection of varieties that best meet the requirements of modern technologies in specific soil and climatic conditions is of great importance.

For this purpose, in 1998-2003 at the St. Petersburg Agrarian University at the Department of Fruit Growing under the leadership of Doctor of Biological Sciences M. N. Plekhanova, postgraduate students M. N. Petrova and S. F. Loginova carried out research on the study of biological characteristics and assessment of 37 varieties strawberries of domestic and foreign selection for their compliance with the soil and climatic conditions of the Leningrad region and the North-West region and the selection of the best varieties for growing in broodstock and commercial plantings, laid with elements of modern technologies. As a result of a thorough long-term study of all 37 varieties of strawberries for production, farm and amateur gardening and use in breeding, varieties are recommended that differ in a complex of economically valuable traits and individual traits:

early ripening - Krasavitsa, Vesnyanka, Junia Smides, Zephyr

late ripening - Borovitskaya, Polka, Chandler

high winter hardiness - Sudarushka, Tsarskoselskaya, Divnaya, Onega, Krasnaya dropleka, Nadezhda, Spasskaya, Surprise to the Olympics, Yonsok, Junia Smides, Zenga Zengana

high yield - Wonderful, Surprise to the Olympics, Onega, Tsarskoye Selo, Pearl, Zega Zegana, Polka, Junia Smides, Borovitskaya, Sudarushka, Yonsok, Krasnaya Kadelka

large-fruited - Wonderful, Talka, Redgontlet, Cinderella, Sudarushka, Lord, Borovitskaya, Polka, Zenga Zengana

dessert taste - Surprise to the Olympics, Zenga Zengana, Sudarushka, Talka, Tsarskoye Selo, Divnaya, Polka, Beauty, Crown, Ruby pendant, Yonsok, Zenith, Cinderella

density and intense color of the pulp - Crown, Polka, Tsarskoye Selo, Surprise Olympics, Carmen

resistance to leaf spot - Onega, Pearl mussel, Relay, Polka, Redgontlet, Holiday, Toros

high reproduction rate (which is important for brood plantations) - Sudarushka, Onega, Yonsok, Surprise Olympics, Festivalnaya, Bounty, Borovitskaya, Tsarskoselskaya, Troitskaya

low breeding rate (which is of particular interest to amateur gardeners) - Crown, Polka, Talka, Divnaya, Carmen, Lord

According to the complex of economically valuable traits in these studies, the zoned varieties Divnaya, Tsarskoselskaya, Sudarushka, Junia Smides, Zenga Zengana, Krasavitsa, Onega, Cinderella and promising varieties Surprise Olympiad, Borovitskaya, Grenada, Korona, Polka were identified.

It is recommended to grow these varieties in the conditions of the North-West region both using intensive technology with the use of mulching film, and using standard domestic technology. The practically recommended assortment of strawberries basically corresponds to the latest zoned assortment for the North-West region, approved in 2008, which includes the varieties Festivalnaya, Zarya, Schedraia, Sudarushka, Divnaya, Tsarskoselskaya, Onega, Severnaya yielding, Nadezhda, Cinderella, Krasavitsa Zagorya, Kokinskaya early, Knight, Scarlet Dawn, Zenga Zengana, Junia Smides, Redgauntlet, Early Macherauch.

The breeding process continues, and as new varieties enter the State Variety Testing, the zoned assortment will be improved in the future.