La
Clé des Champs
A
new june bearing strawberry cultivar for Eastern Central
Canada and climates similar to Quebec conditions
Additional index
words: Fragaria ´ananassa, fruit breeding,
storage, shelf life, red stele
‘Clé
des Champs’ is a new June bearing strawberry cultivar (Fragaria
X ananassa Duch.), bred for Eastern Central Canada and climates
similar to
Quebec
conditions. ‘Clé des Champs’ was
released for pick your own and shipping because it has very attractive
light red, glossy and firm fruit, which have an excellent shelf life
compared to ‘Kent’.
Origin
‘Clé
des Champs’, tested as LL9324-24, is a progeny resulting from a
cross between ‘SJ89244-6E’ and ‘SJ8518-11’ made in 1993 by S.
Khanizadeh. ‘Clé des Champs’ has been tested at the Agriculture
and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) sub-station in L’Acadie,
Quebec
since 1994, and during 2000–2004 by our partners Phytoclone Inc. and
Lareault Nurseries in
Quebec
.
It has been also tested by other AAFC research centers (Atlantic Food
and Horticulture Research Centre,
Bouctouche
NB
),
as well as in
Ontario
.
‘Clé des Champs’ is presently being tested in another AAFC
research center (
Manitoba
)
and also in
Europe
by Meiosis (Bradbourne House, Stable Block, East
Malling
,
Kent
ME19
6DZ
).
Description
Plants
of ‘Clé des Champs’ are vigorous, and produce about five
inflorescences per crown. They can tolerate winter temperatures below
–30°C
with 10 cm straw mulch cover. Petioles are short with three,
medium green, cupped and obtuse leaflets, with obtuse teeth. The
terminal leaflets are slightly longer than broad, have a 1.25 length:width
ratio, and the flowers are perfect.
‘Clé des Champs’
produces attractive large, light red, shiny fruit.  The fruit shape is
globose-conic. The flesh is orange-red almost throughout and very
firm.
Fresh fruit store well for up to 5 days at room temperature
(20oC) with no sign of mold or deterioration compared to ‘
Kent
’
which fruit deterioration observed after 2 days.
A
completely randomized design with four replicates was set up in 2002
and also in 2003 to compare ‘Clé des Champs’ with selected known
commercially grown cultivars. ‘Clé des Champs’ produces similar
yield to ‘
Kent
’
and ‘Jewel’.
Similar
to ‘Jewel’, ’Clé
des Champs’ produces larger size and firmer fruits compared to ‘
Kent
’. ‘Clé
des Champs’ is a midseason cultivar and 50% of primary fruit are
ripe 2 to 3 days after
Kent
.
It is moderately susceptible
to leaf
spot and leaf scorch. No symptoms of powdery mildew (caused
by Sphaerotheca macularis Wallr.
Ex Fr.) or gray mold (caused by Botrytis cinerea Pers. Ex Fr.) have been noted since 1999.
’Clé des Champs’ has similar flavour to ‘Jewel’ and
‘
Kent
’ with
similar soluble solid and acidity.
Chemical analysis
of the fruit by an HPLC method (Rekika et. al. 2005) revealed that
’Clé des Champs’ was higher in hydroxycinnamic acids (5.88 ppm
p-coumaric acid equivalent) and benzoic acids (27.2 ppm gallic acid
equivalent) than ’Kent’ and ’Jewel’ cultivars (4 and 4.3
ppm;
10.7 and 15.6 ppm, respectively). In contrast, fruit
of ’Clé des
Champs’
contain lower amounts of anthocyanins and flavonols (114.5 ppm cyanidins-3-galactoside
equivalent
and 4.5 ppm quercitin-3-galactoside equivalent) than ’Jewel’
(140.2 and 6.4 ppm, respectively) but slightly higher amounts than ’Kent’
(103.8 and 4.2 ppm, respectively). The
high potential of ’Clé des Champs’ fruit (high firmness, long
shelf life, no symptoms of gray mold fruit rot and powdery mildew
disease) could be due to its high content of phenolic
compounds,
benzoic and hydroxycinnamic acids, as well as their high antioxidant
capacity (Rekika et al., 2005; Wang et al., 1994).
Previous
findings showed that benzoic acids have antibacterial, antifungal and
antioxidant properties to prevent food spoilage and to enhance quality
and shelf life (Baldwin et al., 1995; Khan et al., 1999). Lindhard
Pedersen (2003) found that disease resistance of five black currant
cultivars was correlated to high levels of hydroxycinnamic acid
derivatives. These acids can react with organic
molecules, as amino
acid and synthesis of toxic secondary metabolites become highly toxic
to pathogen proliferation (Nicholson
and
Hammerschmidt,
1992).
Area
of adaptation and uses
‘Clé
des Champs’ is recommended for Eastern Central Canada, especially in
areas where the climate is similar to that in the strawberry
production areas of
Quebec
.
Typically, strawberry production in
Quebec
occurs in areas with winter temperatures below –25°C
and warm and humid summers with unpredictable mixture of sun and rain
(drought some seasons, constant rain other seasons).
Availability
Contact the licenced
nurseries
or the breeder.
-
PBRO
and US Patent
-
U.S. Patent No. PP17,381
|
