USPP30016P3 - Strawberry plant named ‘Wenatchee’ - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a new and distinct strawberry plant designated as ‘Wenatchee’ (a.k.a. ‘108818’).

Description

Latin name of the genus and species: Fragaria x ananassa.

Varietal denomination: ‘Wenatchee’ (a.k.a. ‘108818’).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a new and distinct strawberry plant designated as ‘Wenatchee’ (a.k.a. ‘108818’). ‘Wenatchee’ is a day-neutral strawberry plant.

Wenatchee’ (a.k.a. ‘108818’) is the result of a controlled-cross between a female parent cultivar designated 107801 (unpatented, proprietary cultivar) and a male parent cultivar designated 103095 (unpatented, proprietary cultivar) made by the Inventor and was first fruited in Watsonville, Calif. growing fields. Following selection and during testing, the plant was originally designated ‘108818’ and subsequently named ‘Wenatchee’.

This new strawberry plant was asexually reproduced via runners (stolons) by the inventor at Watsonville, Calif. Asexual propagules from the original source have been tested in Watsonville growing fields and to a limited extent, grower fields in high elevation. The properties of this new plant were found to be transmissible by such asexual reproduction. This plant is stable and reproduce true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a new and distinctive strawberry plant designated as ‘Wenatchee’. This strawberry plant is primarily adapted to the climate and growing conditions of the central coast of California. This region provides the necessary temperatures required for it to produce a strong vigorous plant and to remain in fruit production from March through October. The nearby Pacific Ocean provides the needed humidity and moderate day temperatures and evening chilling to maintain fruit quality for the production months.

The following traits and photographs in combination distinguish strawberry plant ‘Wenatchee’ from known strawberry varieties. In addition, this new strawberry plant was confirmed to be a unique strawberry germplasm when tested against the California Seed & Plant Lab, Inc. (Elverta, Calif.) database using Short Sequence Repeats (SSRs). Plants for the botanical measurements in the present application were grown as annuals. Any color references are made to The Royal Horticultural Society Colour Chart, 1995 Edition, except where general terms of ordinary dictionary significance are used. The fruit produced by each new cultivar is attractive and of excellent quality.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying color photographs depict various characteristics of the cultivar as nearly true as possible to make color reproductions.

FIG. 1 shows fruits of ‘Wenatchee’.

FIG. 2 shows sliced fruits of ‘Wenatchee’.

FIG. 3 shows ‘Wenatchee’ plants.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

‘Wenatchee’ (a.k.a. ‘108818’)

This invention relates to a new and distinctive day-neutral type strawberry cultivar designated as ‘Wenatchee’. It is primarily adapted to the climate and growing conditions of the central coast of California. This region provides the necessary temperatures required for it to produce a strong vigorous plant and to remain in fruit production from March through October. The nearby Pacific Ocean provides the needed humidity and moderate day temperatures and evening chilling to maintain fruit quality for the production months.

The following traits in combination distinguish strawberry variety ‘Wenatchee’ from the known strawberry varieties. Plants for the botanical measurements in the present application were grown as annuals. In the following description, color references are made to The Royal Horticultural Society Colour Chart, 1995 Edition, except where general terms of ordinary dictionary significance are used.

The detailed botanical description in Table 1 was observed when the plants were 33 weeks after planting.

‘Wenatchee’ has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions, and the phenotype may vary significantly with variations in environment. The following observations, measurements, and comparisons describe this plant as grown under normal conditions in Watsonville, Calif. unless otherwise noted.

TABLE 1
Wenatchee

CharType	Characteristic	Wenatchee
General	Plant Habit	annual
	Plant Growth Habit	semi-upright
	Plant Height	30 cm
	Plant Width	33 cm
	Plant Width-Crown	7 cm
	Density of foliage, vigor	medium
	Plant vigor	high
Leaf	Terminal leaflet width (mm)	75
	Terminal leaflet length (mm)	80
	No. teeth/terminal leaflet:	22 to 24
	Shape of the terminal leaflet base	obtuse
	Shape of terminal leaflet in	concave
	cross-section
	Margin description of the terminal	serrate to crenate
	Color of upper side of leaves	137A
	Color of lower side of leaves	139C
	Leaf blistering	weak
	Leaf glossiness	medium
Limbs	Petiole length (cm)	21
	Petiole diameter (mm)	3.78
	Petiole color	145B
	Petiolule length (mm)	16
	Petiolule diameter (mm)	3.78
	Attitude of hairs on petiole and pedicel	upwards
	Stipule pubescence	sparse
	Stipule length (cm)	3
	Stipule size	small to medium
	Stipule width (cm)	0.8
	Stipule anthocyanin	present
	Stipule color (color code)	139C
	Pedicel color (color code)	145A
	Peduncle length (cm)	19.5
	Peduncle size	medium
	Peduncle attitude	semi-erect
	Peduncle pubescence, attitude of hairs	medium, upwards
Inflorescence	Inflorescence position relative	above
	to foliage
	Flower arrangement of petals	touching
	Petal length (cm)	1.5
	Petal width (cm)	1.8
	Petal number per flower	6
	Upper Petal color	155A
	Lower Petal color	155C
	Calyx diameter (cm)	4
	Corolla diameter (cm)	2.5
	Sepal length (cm)	2.5
	Sepal width (cm)	1.4
	Time of flowering	March
	(50% of plants in bloom)
	Shape of stigma	capitate
	Color of stigma	4A
	Length of style (mm)	2
	Color of style	4A
	Color of the ovary	145C
	Length of the stamens (mm)	6
	Number of stamen	22 to 30
	Anther color	12A
	Shape of anther	dorsifixed
	Size of anther	medium
	Amount of pollen	moderate
	Color of pollen	12A
	Color of filament	145C
	Length of filament (mm)	5
	Number of flowers per truss	2 to 4
Stolon	Stolon number	8
	Stolon anthocyanin	181A
	Widest diameter of stolon
	At leaf attachment (mm)	4.27
	Stolon color	145A
Fruit	Number of fruit per truss	2 to 3
	Fruit length (cm)	5.3
	Fruit width (cm)	5
	Fruit skin color	42A
	Fruit flesh color excluding core	37A
	Fruit core length (cm)	2.3
	Fruit core width (cm)	1.3
	Fruit core color	38B
	Fruit weight (g)	31.9
	Predominant fruit shape	long conic
	Shape difference between primary &	Similar shape
	secondary fruits
	Width of band without of achenes	medium
	Fruit glossiness	medium to strong
	Position of achenes	even to below
		surface
	Achene color	145A
	Achenes per fruit	546
	Achene weight (g)	0.33
	Position of calyx	even
	level of adherence of calyx	strong
	Color of calyx	136 A
	Firmness of flesh	medium
	Evenness of flesh color	nearly even
	Sweetness (brix)	10.5
	pH	3.82
	Yield (g per plant per season)	2619

When ‘Wenatchee’ is compared to the proprietary female parent (107801), ‘Wenatchee’ has a cylindrical shape with plant height nearly the same as plant width, which differs from an oblate spreading shape of the female parent with plant width nearly two times more than plant height. Fruit of ‘Wenatchee’ is light orange-red, while the fruit of the female parent is light red. The fruit color of ‘Wenatchee’ is uniform over the entire fruit when ripe, however the female parent does not fully color as consistently having a white area around the calyx that appears not to have fully ripened.

When ‘Wenatchee’ is compared to the proprietary male parent (103095), the fruit of ‘Wenatchee’ has a long-conic shape, which is different from the fruit of the male parent having a roundish oblate-conic shape (symmetric conic). ‘Wenatchee’ fruit is less hard than the fruit of the male parent as measured by using a Wagner force gauge. ‘Wenatchee’ also has a greater fruit yield than the male parent.

When ‘Wenatchee’ is compared to the check variety ‘Monterey’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 19,767), ‘Wenatchee’ differs from ‘Monterey’ in the manner of petiole and leaf position. The petiole of ‘Wenatchee’ leaves grows more vertically upward direction than that of ‘Monterey’ leaves. In terms of canopy foliage, the canopy of ‘Monterey’ is more open than that of ‘Wenatchee’. The flowers and fruits of ‘Wenatchee’ have shorter overall crown to medial flower calyx stem length than those of ‘Monterey’. Ripened fruit of ‘Wenatchee’ falls closer to the plant than the ripened fruit of ‘Monterey’ which falls further below the level of the plant as it gains mass.

TABLE 2
Comparison of fruit features between ‘Wenatchee’
and the proprietary male and female parents

				FRUIT
		FRUIT		RATIO
HYBRID	HYBRID	WIDTH	FRUIT	(Height/
ID	NAME	(mm)	HEIGHT (mm)	Width)
103095	Male Parent	46.92	48.00	1.02
107801	Female Parent	39.88	46.72	1.17
108818	Wenatchee	41.33	51.62	1.25
	HYBRID	FRUIT	HARDNESS	Yield
	ID	SHAPE*	(newtons)	(g/clone)
	103095	6	10.54	858
	107801	7	7.05	2543
	108818	7	8.20	1088
*Fruit shape: 1. Oblate; 2. Globose; 3. Fan Lobes; 4. Necked: 5. Short wedge; 6. Symmetric conic; 7. Conic; 8. Long conic; 9. Long wedge

TABLE 3
Comparison of fruit features between ‘Wenatchee’
and the check variety

				FRUIT
		FRUIT		RATIO
HYBRID	HYBRID	WIDTH	FRUIT	(Height/
ID	NAME	(mm)	HEIGHT (mm)	Width)
Check	Monterey	43.70	48.33	1.11
Variety	(U.S. Plant
	Pat. No. 19,767)
108818	Wenatchee	41.33	51.62	1.25

		FRUIT	HARDNESS	Yield
	ID	SHAPE*	(newtons)	(g/clone)
	Check	6	9.04	840
	Variety
	108818	7	8.20	1088
*Fruit shape: 1. Oblate; 2. Globose; 3. Fan Lobes; 4. Necked: 5. Short wedge; 6. Symmetric conic; 7. Conic; 8. Long conic; 9. Long wedge

Claims (1)

The invention claimed is:

1. A new and distinct cultivar of strawberry plant named ‘Wenatchee’ substantially as shown and described herein.

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