Variety testing in horticultural field production

The results of the project should be directly applicable to commercial cultivation. Sweden’s approximately 300 strawberry growers and nearly 800 open-field vegetable growers make annual commercial decisions regarding variety selection. By strengthening the decision-making basis for growers, food production can be increased.

The goal of the project is to establish and develop a variety testing programme that provides growers across the country with the opportunity to expand production of open-field vegetables and cultivated berries, primarily strawberries. The new programme is intended to complement and reinforce existing knowledge channels related to varieties and thus achieve broad acceptance.

The project’s vision is a thriving professional horticultural sector throughout Sweden, where growers make well-informed variety choices that enhance the sustainability and competitiveness of their production.

This will be achieved by generating new knowledge and tools to demonstrate how different crops and varieties perform under Swedish growing conditions and by disseminating this knowledge. The assignment also includes leveraging synergies with other actors involved in variety testing and development activities.

By improving the basis for variety selection, the project also enhances the potential for international plant breeding to contribute effectively to a growing, sustainable, and profitable food production sector in Sweden, in line with the vision of SLU Grogrund.

Field trials initiated under the project from 2022: 

• Open-field strawberries, Öjebyn, Norrbotten, 2022–2024 
  Key variety traits: flavour and climate adaptation (winter hardiness, spring hardiness, early flower induction).
• Open-field strawberries, Skåne, 2022–2024 
  Key variety traits: disease tolerance and berry shelf-life.
• Pointed cabbage, Skåne
  Key variety traits: size and storage life.
• Pointed cabbage, Öjebyn 
  Key variety traits: size and storage life.
• Bulb onion, Skåne
  Key variety traits: earliness, size, and storage life.
• Beetroot, Skåne 
  Key variety traits: yield and size, as well as texture, flavour, and colour after cooking.

Extensive use of photographic documentation is planned for three purposes. First, to visually illustrate the varieties as part of the publicly available results. Second, to create opportunities for developing indirect measurement methods through image analysis in student projects at the master’s and bachelor’s levels. Third, to easily test and implement such methods in future variety trials. These methods may replace time-consuming field work, thereby improving the prospects for conducting variety testing in the long term. The collection of photographic data will be planned in consultation with phenomics experts at SLU.

The project will disseminate knowledge about varieties through trial results, communicated via field walks, grower meetings, published reports, and open raw data and summaries made available online.

To ensure that crop and variety selection remains relevant to commercial growers, a selection group led by the Federation of Swedish Farmers (LRF) is associated with the programme.

Read more about the project at Elitplantstationen's web page (in Swedish).

Project coordinator: Joakim Stefansson, Elitplantstationen 

Participating organisations: Elitplantstationen, SLU, LRF Trädgård, HIR Skåne, Lönnslätts Bär, Almhaga Grönsaker, GoLeaf, Waregården Lantbruk, Hushållningssällskapet Norrbotten-Västerbotten, Olssons Frö, Semenco, SW Horto, Hazera Seeds, Fresh Forward, Flevo Berry, Malling Fruits, Vissers Aardbeiplanten, KRAEGE International, Centro Innovazione Varietale, Hansabred, Sydgrönt med flera.