Malling™ Centenary is the June bearer to beat

“Definitely the best June bearer variety publicly available” is how Marion Regan, Managing Director at Hugh Lowe Farms in Kent describes Malling™ Centenary. “There are plenty of opportunities for growers to get the optimum from it and learn how to grow it better”, says Marion. Malling™ Centenary plants have seen a rapid growth in plant sales since its release in 2013, and it is now established as the most planted June-bearing strawberry in the UK. Tony Vallance from Meiosis, which administers the plant breeding rights for the variety, says ”Plant sales in 2017-18 are expected to grow by a further 136% year-on-year, mainly in the UK but also with increasing interest from growers in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

Marion Regan with this year’s overwintered Malling™ Centenary

crop

“Definitely the best June-bearer publicly available.” she commented.

“Agronomists, plant propagators and fruit growers have learned to adjust their production techniques to suit the demands of the variety, resulting in significant improvements to plant health and yield”. We asked two leading growers for their tips on how to get the best from the variety. Marion Regan, and Sandy Booth at The New Forest Fruit Company (NFF), Hampshire share their experiences so far.

Hugh Lowe Farms Ltd is a family-owned farming company started by Marion Regan's great-grandfather who planted his first strawberry crop in 1893, and it has been in the family for over 120 years. With 700ha of soft fruit and arable crops, they are one of the largest independent berry growers in the UK and a leading member of Berry Garden Growers. Malling™ Centenary has two roles at Hugh Lowe Farms: to provide an early forced crop, starting picking at the beginning of May from overwintered plants followed by a 60 day crop to take picking round to the start of the everbearer season.

Sandy Booth, who became the sole owner of The New Forest Fruit Co. Ltd in November 2017, says that strawberry growing is “still a passion, not a job”. It all began in his Scottish childhood when, as a five year old, he started picking strawberries for money to spend on holiday. Since he arrived in the New Forest ten years ago, the production of strawberries has increased from 700 tonnes to well over 3,000 tonnes/year. The farm, based near Beaulieu, supplies numerous retailers throughout the season. Sandy says “Malling™ Centenary is the only June-bearer I use now, due to picking speeds, manageability, flavour and shelf life”.

Glasshouse production gives NFF early and late harvests, and polytunnels take them from mid-April to mid-June. Although the coastal site helps with earliness, the use of mini tabletops 30-40cm from the ground, and covering rows with fleece in cold weather, ensures that the berries are top quality and ready to pick on time. Sandy plants the glasshouses in early January to start cropping from 20 March and has found that Malling™ Centenary “does a double whammy under glass with a second flush from the same plants from mid-June until the end of July”. The glass is replanted again with Malling™ Centenary on 10 August to crop from October until December. “We don’t overwinter plants, purely to take the risk out of the business; it’s made planning much easier.”

Sandy Booth with new branding for
The New Forest Fruit Company, Malling™ Centenary is the only June-bearer I use now,” he said

At Hugh Lowe Farms, Marion says the 2017 season for Malling™ Centenary was excellent in terms of fruit size and weight, leading to a heavy crop from overwintered plants. In comparison, the difficult 2018 spring conditions (“arctic to mid-summer within a few days”) have taken their toll. “The variety has performed well, just not the very large berries we had last year. The period of very cold weather in April coincided with flowering in our forcing tunnels which has led to some misshapes”, reports Marion.

Despite this she is still pleased with the variety on many fronts, particularly as “people love to pick it”. She adds, “It helps that it’s a simple berry to pick, not a complicated truss, meaning there are fewer decisions to make when picking. And there is no need to search through the plants, the berries are well displayed. Additionally we spend a lot of time and effort on truss training to bring all the inflorescences out on display. It’s time and money spent early on, but we think worth it later. We need to make harvest tasks flow more easily to help improve labour productivity”

The beautiful appearance of Malling™ Centenary berries has represented a sea-change for breeders, and Marion notes that the NIAB EMR strawberry breeding team are benchmarking all the new selections on it, so anything released from now on will be at least as good, if not better. Marion has been particularly impressed that the berries are consistently “nice to eat” with a balanced taste. Although known to be susceptible to crown rot, Marion has not seen the disease as a problem so far. She does consider that the yield from 60-day plants is questionable although acceptable, but any shortfall is made up for by ease of picking, good grade-out and high percentage Class I. This year they will be looking at some big, annually-planted tray plants, but at Hugh Lowe Farms they are mainly planting a 60-day crop and then overwintering for an early forced crop the following year.

Tips for success

Marion says good planting material is a key to success. “Keep close to your propagator, we invest time in visiting our propagator” – it’s well worth the travel cost. Sandy has one main message to all propagators of Malling™ Centenary: the only way to improve it is that they must the tips into small, medium and large. Each grade will require different watering and nutrition, and will result in improved plants, plus, in Sandy’s opinion, there will be less risk of crown rot. “With Elsanta every tip grew, but Malling™ Centenary needs care and attention. Our system doesn’t suit bare-root plants – we only use tray-plants from tips”.

Another piece of advice is that propagators need to strike tips in June not July as this gives the high truss numbers that Sandy now requires. Early-struck plants give seven to ten trusses per plant, which are giving 500g-550g this year. This is another improvement of performance at NFF as, in 2017, plants with four to seven trusses gave 400g-450g. “We’ll go for seven to ten trusses from now on, and we know it’s possible to do 600g/plant.” This productivity, combined with the bigger berries (Malling™ Centenary produces berries with an average weight of 23g compared with only 15g for Elsanta says Sandy) makes him more confident for the future, as picking costs rise. “Our goal by 2020 is to still be profitable, despite the possibility that, with labour costs currently running at £9.25/hour, these may be £11 to £12 by then.”

Marion’s second tip is to consider experimenting with plant densities. “As we learn more about the variety we are looking at how much to crown-thin the previous year if we are overwintering. We may have over-thinned one block this year, but in another we got it right. We expect 570g-600g/plant from the overwintered forced crop, although not this year”

With more than 30 years’ experience with Elsanta and 20 years with Sonata, it is not surprising that growers are still learning about Malling™ Centenary, but they are certainly making swift progress with this outstanding variety.