United Kingdom works on the development of a new variety of blueberries
Scientists in Scotland are confident that in the next three to four years, the UK will have, with at least one new variety of blueberries, ideal to be produced in Britain.
At Portalfruticola.com, we spoke with Dr. Julie Graham of the James Hutton Institute, who explained how her team is making good progress towards the development of new cultivated varieties in Great Britain, with large volumes of high quality fruit, blue Dark.
"We hope to have at least one variety or more in a period of three to four years, because the breeding program has been underway for a while and we have a lot of material. We have done all the preliminary studies of what is growing well in the United States, and what is not, and we hope that all the crosses we have made are appropriate for the United Kingdom."He explained.
"The demand for blueberries has surpassed the ceiling, it has been phenomenal, since people generally perceive that blueberries are really healthy".
"They are so easy and comfortable because they store very well, last a long time and have many really positive factors: US consumers simply love them.".
Stimulated by the popularity of the fruit, Dr. Graham and her team of researchers are working with growers in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK to explore what traits and characteristics the fruit needs to thrive. Specifically, they are looking for higher yielding varieties that are more resistant to disease and grow well on Scottish soil and climatic conditions.
The research is part of a program funded by the Scottish Government and, if successful, could mean less dependence on imports from blueberry producing countries such as Chile, Poland and Spain.
"We have invented some germplasms that work reasonably well and we decided that we really need to obtain a development program based in Great Britain, specifically for the development of blueberries for the United Kingdom, where obviously the conditions are very different. We have a variety of funds to help support the program", He says.
"We have been developing a genetic linkage map, as an image of all plant chromosomes, with markers along them, that relate to particular genes and characteristics".
"We have been trying to identify some of the key factors that are regulating the performance in the cranberry and some of the results are very interesting, because we are seeing that the light levels are really important".
"There are all kinds of things that we did not know before the new technology that is now informing the breeding program. For example, we now know that cranberry can only cope with a certain level of light and above that level, it really does not have any benefit. This means that we can try to develop varieties that use light more efficiently".
The research also uses imaging technology through a field platform that has several cameras connected to it, which look at wavelengths that are generally undetectable.
Blueberry production has grown by an 10% in Scotland in the last year and producers in the United Kingdom, in general, are eager to plant more, while continuing to work with the research team to test new varieties. The forecasts seem optimistic, according to Graham.
Source: Fruit Portal
next article
Agrometeorological Alert N ° 6ARTÍCULOS RELACIONADOS
