East Mailing Research strawberry open day: As EMR's strawberry club members taste their first selections, Brian Lovelidge reports on runners and riders

摘要

New varieties are the life-blood of strawberry production. Yet while there has never been such a wide range and number of gopd varieties on the market, it is still dominated by the Dutch-bred Elsanta, launched over 20 years ago. Since it became established as the market leader, breeders throughout northern Europe have been trying to produce a variety to supersede it, but so far have not succeeded. However, Dr David Simpson -who runs East Mailing Research's (EMR's) strawberry breeding programme - reckons he has hit the jackpot with Elegance (coded E1276), which is being evaluated in farm trials before its launch this autumn.