Strawberry Plant Named 'Fukushima ST14Go'

Abstract

‘Fukushima ST14Go’ is a new vigorous strawberry variety having an upright growth habit that can withstand cold temperatures. ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ has large, strong yellowish red, conical fruit having pale pink flesh.

Description

Genus and species: The strawberry plant of this invention is botanically known as Fragaria ananassa L.

Variety denomination: The variety denomination is ‘Fukushima ST14Go’.

BACKGROUND

‘Fukushima ST14Go’ arose from a cross between maternal variety ‘Kaorino’ and paternal variety ‘Tochiotome’ performed in Koriyama city, Fukushima prefecture, Japan in 2012. The plant was first asexually reproduced in Koriyama city, Fukushima prefecture by runners. ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ was selected from 162 individuals in 2014. The characteristics of ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ are stable over subsequent asexual reproduction by runners.

Field tests were conducted in six locations (Date City, Sukagawa City (2 locations), Kagamiishi Machi, Tanagura Machi, and Iwaki City) in 2018; four locations (Sukagawa City (2 locations), Aizuwakamatsu City and Iwaki City) in 2019, three locations (Aizuwakamatsu City, Okuma Machi, and Iwaki City) in 2020 and seven locations (Date City, Tanagura Machi, Aizuwakamatsu City (2 locations), Soma City, Okuma Machi, and Iwaki City) in 2021.

BRIEF SUMMARY

‘Fukushima ST14Go’ is maintained by asexual propagation by runners in Fukushima, Japan. ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ has an upright growth habit; and large, strong yellowish red, conical fruit that has pale pink flesh. The type of bearing is non-remontant. ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ can be distinguished from parent varieties ‘Kaorino’ (unpatented) and ‘Tochiotome’ (unpatented) as shown in Table 1. ‘Tochiotome’ is a close comparison variety.

TABLE 1
Comparison of ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ to Parental Cultivars.
Colors are designated with reference to The
Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Colour Chart.
Name of			Characteristic
Similar		Characteristic of	of Variety
Variety	Characteristics	Similar Variety	of Application
‘Kaorino’	Plant: vigor	moderately	strong
	relative intensity	strong	darker than
	of color of upper		‘Kaorino’
	side of leaf
	Fruit: color of core	White 155-B	light red 33-C
‘Tochiotome’	Plant: growth habit	semi-upright	upright
	Fruit: color	brilliant red	strong yellowish
		45-A	red 44-A
	Fruit: position	deep below	level with
	of achenes	surface	surface

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The colors in the photograph are depicted as nearly true as is reasonably possible to obtain in color reproductions of this type. The photographs were obtained from plants of less than one year of age. Seedlings were started in July, planted in September and grown until April.

FIG. 1 depicts plants of ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ grown in a glass greenhouse in Fukushima, Japan.

FIG. 2 shows exterior and interior of representative fruit of ‘Fukushima ST14Go’.

FIG. 3 depicts plants of comparison variety ‘Tochiotome’ grown in a glass greenhouse in Fukushima, Japan.

FIG. 4 shows exterior and interior of representative fruit of comparison variety ‘Tochiotome’.

FIG. 5 shows exterior and interior of representative fruit of comparison variety ‘Kaorino’.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Characteristics of ‘Fukushima ST14Go’

The plant growth habit is upright. The plant vigor is strong and is maintained without lighting even in the severe cold period (Table 2). The generation of side buds is rare and the fruit cluster is slightly long and hard to break, so the work efficiency is excellent.

The fruit shape is conical, and the fruit color is strong yellowish red (FIG. 1, Table 7). Fruit are long and narrow, which is the same as ‘Tochiotome’. The following cahracteristics of ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ fruit are also the same as ‘Tochiotome’: ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ exhibits medium adhesion of calyx to fruit; the position of the calyx in relation to the fruit is flat; and the color uniformity is weak. The stalk length of ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ is 25.9 cm compared to 21.9 cm for ‘Tochiotome’.

‘Fukushima ST14Go’ has 4.5 stolons compared to 3.9 stolons for ‘Tochiotome’.

‘Fukushima ST14Go’ has the following foliage characteristics compared to ‘Tochiotome’. The length is 7.2 cm compared to 6.0 cm for ‘Tochiotome’; the length and width of apical lobes is 1.28 compared to 1.24 for ‘Tochiotome’; and the leaf area is 107.2 cm² compared to 82.0 cm² for ‘Tochiotome’. The basal shape, acute, is the same as ‘Tochiotome’. Both cultivars have medium surface roughness and strong surface gloss. Both also have serration of the tip; and a transverse section shape that is curved upward. Petioles are 9.1 cm compared to 5.6 cm for ‘Tochiotome’.

Flowers of ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ have 5 petals and are of medium diameter, both of which are the same as ‘Tochiotome’.

The root development for ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ was generally better than that of ‘Tochiotome’. When seedlings were placed in water for three weeks, the number of roots for ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ was 13.9 compared to 12.9 for ‘Tochiotome’; the maximum root length was 5.1 cm for ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ compared to 4.4 cm for ‘Tochiotome’; and the roots of ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ were finer than those of ‘Tochiotome’.

Harvesting starts early and yields are high by the end of the year. The percentage of large fruits is high and there are few malformed fruits. The taste is good, the sugar content is high, and skin firmness is high (Tables 4 to 7).

Evaluation in Field Tests

Field tests provided the following additional characteristics. The plant vigor was maintained even in the severe cold period (common). Yields were high (Sukagawa). The taste was good with little variation in taste from season to season. Damage was not noticeable after harvest. The tail fruit of each fruit cluster appeared small.

In view of the vigor of the variety, it is expected that ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ can be cultivated throughout the Fukushima prefecture as well as corresponding areas that have similar cold periods.

The development of clusters may be delayed after the second cluster is harvested. The top fruit is large, but bottom fruit tends to become smaller.

‘Fukushima ST14Go’ has moderate to weak resistance to Antrhacnose and weak resistance to chlorosis. Pest control can be carried out in the same manner as the practice for ‘Tochiotome’.

Fruit hardiness and pulp hardness decreased more than that of ‘Tochiotome’ 2 and 4 days after harvest, and post-harvest storability was inferior to that of ‘Tochiotome’.

TABLE 2
Comparison of ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ and parental cultivar growth
characteristics at start of harvest (December 2020, without lighting,
Fukushima) of plants less than one year of age. Seedling were
started in July, planted in September, and grown until April.
	Plant		Plant	Petiole	Leaflet	Terminal
	growth	Plant	height	length	length	inflorescence
Variety	habit	vigor	(cm)	(cm)	(cm)	length (cm)
‘Fukushima	upright	strong	23.1	9.1	7.2	25.9
ST14Go’
‘Tochiotome’	semi-	medium	14.1	5.6	6.0	21.9
(standard)	upright
‘Kaorino’	upright	strong	23.4	11.1	7.9	39.9
(reference)

TABLE 3
Comparison of ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ and parental cultivar flowering
dand harvest dates (November 2020 to May 2021, Fukushima)
	Terminal inflorescence	Second inflorescence
	Flowering	Harvest	No. of	Flowering	Harvest	No. of
Variety	date	date	flowers	date	date	flowers
‘Fukushima	November 10	December 17	14.1	December 20	February 1	11.4
ST14Go’
‘Tochiotome’	November 14	December 28	15.7	January 5	February 23	11.5
(standard)
‘Kaorino’	November 4	December 10	12.9	December 6	January 19	13.0
(reference)
	Third inflorescence	Fourth inflorescence
	Flowering	Harvest	No. of	Flowering	Harvest	No. of
Variety	date	date	flowers	date	date	flowers
‘Fukushima	February 27	March 31	7.1	April 13	May 11	10.0
ST14Go’
‘Tochiotome’	March 15	April 19	8.0	April 14	May 16	9.6
(standard)
‘Kaorino’	February 9	March 16	8.1	March 5	April 8	7.1
(reference)

TABLE 4
Comparison of ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ and parental cultivar fruit production
by month1 (November 2020 to May 2021, Fukushima)
	November	December	January	February	March	April	May	Total1)
		Yield		Yield		Yield		Yield		Yield		Yield		Yield		Yield
Variety	No.	(g)	No.	(g)	No.	(g)	No.	(g)	No.	(g)	No.	(g)	No.	(g)	No.	(g)
‘Fukushima ST14Go’	0.1	1.6	3.5	88.8	7.0	109.4	5.8	106.3	2.7	45.7	5.2	81.2	5.4	105.6	29.7	538.7
‘Tochiotome’	0.0	0.0	0.7	24.6	7.4	130.8	3.5	67.3	4.1	63.5	6.9	119.1	4.7	95.5	27.3	500.6
(standard)
‘Kaorino’ (reference)	0.0	0.0	3.2	98.0	7.3	124.1	5.6	95.0	2.8	67.3	7.6	118.8	7.1	105.8	33.6	609.0
1)fruit of 6.0 g or greater (excluding malformed fruit)

TABLE 5
Comparison of ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ and parental cultivar yield characteristics
per plant (November 2020 to May 2021, Fukushima)
	On-specification yield1)	Off-specification yield
	3L	2L	L	M/S	Malformed	Offal
	(≥25 g)	(≥17 g)	(≥12 g)	(≥6 g)	fruit2)	fruit3)	Total
		Yield		Yield		Yield		Yield		Yield		Yield		Yield
Variety	No.	(g)	No.	(g)	No.	(g)	No.	(g)	No.	(g)	No.	(g)	No.	(g)
‘Fukushima	6.9	230.9	6.8	138.5	5.4	77.1	10.7	92.2	1.2	21.0	4.4	20.2	35.3	579.9
ST14Go’
‘Tochiotome’	5.6	190.0	6.7	139.9	6.6	94.8	8.4	76.0	2.9	67.9	2.6	10.9	32.8	579.4
(standard)
‘Kaorino’	7.7	263.6	7.4	153.9	6.1	87.1	12.3	104.4	4.2	83.6	8.1	32.9	45.9	725.5
(reference)
1)fruit of 6.0 g or greater (excluding malformed fruit)
2)malformed fruit of 6.0 g or greater
3)fruit of less than 6.0 g

TABLE 6
Comparison of ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ and parental cultivar fruit production characteristics (November 2020 to May 2021, Fukushima).
			Irregular
	Avg.	Product	shaped
	fruit	fruit	fruit	Fruit firmness4) (gf)
	weight1	ratio2)	ratio3)	December	January	February	March	April	May	Avg.
Variety	(g)	(%)	(%)	Skin	Flesh	Skin	Flesh	Skin	Flesh	Skin	Flesh	Skin	Flesh	Skin	Flesh	Skin	Flesh
‘Fukushima	18.2	84.1	4.8	105.0	22.9	140.4	52.0	125.6	36.2	148.9	43.8	106.6	48.0	91.9	32.4	119.7	39.2
ST14Go’
‘Tochiotome’	18.3	83.4	4.6	151.9	38.1	118.5	55.5	118.7	40.7	124.6	60.3	84.8	36.6	65.9	21.5	110.7	42.1
(standard)
‘Kaorino’	17.8	71.5	8.8	97.0	38.5	103.3	32.2	124.7	31.9	152.4	54.6	87.9	28.3	82.3	33.9	107.9	36.6
(reference)
1Product fruit weight/product fruit number
2)Product fruit number/total fruit number × 100
3)Irregular shaped fruit number/product fruit number × 100 (*product fruit: fruit of 6.0 g or greater excluding malformed fruit)
4)measured by a creepmeter (YAMADEN, RE2-3305S), penetration resistance to a 3 mm dia. cylindrical plunger penetrated at a maximum rate of 1 mm/sec.

TABLE 7
Comparison of ‘Fukushima ST14Go’ and parental cultivar fruit quality characteristics (November 2020 to May 2021,
Fukushima). Colors are designated with reference to The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Colour Chart.
	Fruit	Skin	Sugar content2) (% Brix)	Acidity2) (%)
Variety	shape1)	color1)	December	January	February	March	April	May	December	January	February	March	April	May
‘Fukushima	conical	strong	11.7	9.3	11.2	10.6	12.1	10.8	0.49	0.41	0.48	0.47	0.63	0.68
ST14Go’		yellowish
		red 44A
‘Tochiotome’	conical	vivid red	11.0	9.3	10.9	11.2	10.3	9.6	0.53	0.43	0.47	0.50	0.60	0.69
(standard)		45A
‘Kaorino’	conical	strong	9.2	9.1	10.6	11.1	9.3	10.2	0.42	0.34	0.44	0.45	0.48	0.56
(reference)		yellowish
		red 44A
1)at the time of investigation in January.
2)measured by a strawberry Brix meter (ATAGO. PAL-BX/ACID4)

Claims

1. A new and distinct cultivar of strawberry plant substantially as described and illustrated herein.