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Title: 'PRIMETIME' STRAWBERRY

Author
item Galletta, Gene
item Maas, John
item Enns, John
item SCHEERENS, JOSEPH - OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
item ROUSE, ROBEERT - UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
item HEFLEBOWER, RICK - UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

Submitted to: HortScience
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/22/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: `Primetime', a new Junebearing strawberry variety developed by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, was released for growers in the Mid-Atlantic and adjacent regions. The fruit of `Primetime' are large, attractively symmetrical, of excellent quality, and ripen during the midseason for Junebearing strawberries. Its fruit are medium-firm, with bright scarlet skin and pink flesh colors, and have a pleasant, mild and lightly aromatic fresh flavor. `Primetime' produces well on either light or heavy soils and in matted-row or raised-bed culture. This variety should be especially useful to growers in the Mid-Atlantic and adjacent areas as a high-quality, midseason, shipping and local market cultivar with multiple fungus disease resistance that can be grown in a wide variety of soil types and under different culture practices. Plants of `Primetime' are vigorous, runner well to fill beds, and are resistant to the red stele root rot disease

Technical Abstract: The `Primetime' Junebearing strawberry was introduced to nurseries for propagation in April 1995 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). `Primetime' was selected for its attractive, large, symmetrical, and good quality fruit, midseason ripening period, and plants that are vigorous, runner well, and are resistant to the red stele root rot disease (caused by Phytophthora fragariae). `Primetime' also is resistant to several leaf diseases and fruit rots. `Primetime' fruit are medium in skin firmness and toughness, with bright scarlet skin and pink flesh colors, and have a pleasant, mild, and lightly aromatic fresh flavor. `Primetime' produces well on either light or heavy soils and in matted-row or raised-bed culture. `Primetime' usually ripens with or slightly ahead of `Redchief' and `Lester'. Maximum productivity of this cultivar may be realized at USDA hardiness zones 6 and 7. `Primetime' is suggested for trial in the middle Atlantic and adjacent regions and is introduced there as a high-quality, midseason, shipping and local market cultivar with multiple fungus disease resistance. `Primetime' was named to suggest that it fruits during the middle, or "prime", strawberry production season in the Mid-Atlantic region.