Strawberry plant named ‘Driscoll Ojai’

Abstract

This invention relates to a new and distinct variety of strawberry named ‘Driscoll Ojai’. The variety is similar to the varieties ‘Driscoll El Capitan’ and ‘Driscoll Venice’. The variety is distinguished from ‘Driscoll El Capitan’ and ‘Driscoll Venice,’ in particular, by its height, longer petiole length, longer fruiting truss length, open canopy density and moderate susceptibility to powdery mildew.

Description

Latin name of the genus and species of the plant claimed: The variety is botanically identified as Fragaria×ananassa.

Variety Denomination: The strawberry variety denomination is ‘Driscoll Ojai’.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The new variety originated as a result of a controlled cross between male cultivar ‘Driscoll El Capitan’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. PP 14,005) and female cultivar ‘Driscoll Venice’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. PP 14,062) in an ongoing breeding program, and was discovered as a seedling in Ventura County, Calif. in 1999. The original seedling of the new cultivar was asexually propagated by stolons in a Nursery in Shasta County, Calif. Propagules were transplanted to a controlled breeding plot in Ventura County, Calif., where the variety was identified and selected for further evaluation. ‘Driscoll Ojai’ was subsequently asexually propagated and underwent further testing in Ventura County, Calif. for four years. This propagation and testing has demonstrated that the combination of traits disclosed herein which characterize the new variety are fixed and retained true to type through successive generations of asexual reproduction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of strawberry named ‘Driscoll Ojai’. The variety is botanically identified as Fragaria×ananassa. The new variety is distinguished from other varieties by a number of characteristics as set forth in Tables 1-4.

COMPARISON TO SIMILAR VARIETIES

The varieties which we believe to be similar to ‘Driscoll Ojai’ from those known to us are ‘Driscoll El Capitan’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. PP 14,005) and ‘Driscoll Venice’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. PP 14,062). There are several characteristics of the new variety that are different from, or not possessed by ‘Driscoll El Capitan’ and ‘Driscoll Venice’. For example, the new variety is taller, has a longer petiole length, a longer fruiting truss length, an open canopy density and is moderately susceptible to powdery mildew. Additional characteristics of ‘Driscoll Ojai’ include a strong sweetness with a seasonal average brix of 9.3. Furthermore, additional petal characteristics of ‘Dricoll Ojai’ include an orbicular petal shape, a rounded petal apex, an entire petal margin, a concavo-convex petal base and a typical and observed petal number of 5. Additional sepal characteristics of ‘Driscoll Ojai’ include an elliptic sepal shape and a typical and observed sepal number of 10. The sepal apex of ‘Driscoll Ojai’ can be either convex or complex and the sepal margin of ‘Driscoll Ojai’ can be either entire or serrate. Additional leaf characteristics of ‘Driscoll Ojai’ include a typical and observed rounded leaflet shape and a rounded leaf apex.

‘Driscoll Ojai’ is distinguished from its parent, ‘Driscoll El Capitan’ and ‘Driscoll Venice’ as indicated in Tables 1-4.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying photographs show typical specimens of the new variety, including fruit, foliage and flowers, in color as nearly true as it is reasonably possible to make in color illustrations of these characteristics.

FIG. 1 shows the whole the plant.

FIG. 2 shows the upper side of the leaves of the plant.

FIG. 3 shows the under side and upper side of the flowers.

FIG. 4 shows a close-up of the fruit.

FIG. 5 shows the fruit in longitudinal cross-section.

DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW VARIETY

The following detailed description of the new variety is based upon observations taken of plants harvested from a nursery in Bonanza, Oreg. in September and October, 2004 and held in cold storage until planting in Ventura County, Calif. in October, 2004. Plants were grown in raised beds of soil under conditions typical of commercial strawberry production in Ventura County, Calif. Fruits were harvested twice weekly from January, 2005 to May, 2005 for yield determination. Observations of ‘Driscoll Ojai’, ‘Driscoll El Capitan’, and ‘Driscoll Venice’ were made in side by side comparison in April, 2005. Color designations, color descriptions, and other phenotypical descriptions may deviate from the stated values and descriptions depending upon variation in environmental, seasonal, climatic and cultural conditions. Colors are described and the most similar color designations are provided from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Colour Chart.

PROPAGATION

The new variety is principally propagated by way of stolons. Although propagation by stolons is presently preferred, other known methods of propagating strawberry plants may be employed.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEW VARIETY

Information on the new variety is presented in Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4. In the tables, the flowers described are secondary flowers except where indicated. The fruit described is the secondary fruit on seven months old plants. Fruit and flower measurements are an average of both primary and secondary fruit and flowers.

Table 1 provides information on the plant and fruit characteristics of the new variety ‘Driscoll Ojai’ compared with characteristics of ‘Driscoll El Capitan’ and ‘Driscoll Venice’. Table 2 provides additional information of the plant and fruit characteristics of the new variety ‘Driscoll Ojai’ compared with characteristics of the varieties ‘Driscoll El Capitan’ and ‘Driscoll Venice’. Table 3 provides reactions of the new variety to stresses, pests and diseases compared with reactions of the varieties ‘Driscoll El Capitan’ and ‘Driscoll Venice’. Table 4 provides isozyme characteristics of the new variety as compared to that of the varieties ‘Driscoll El Capitan’ and ‘Driscoll Venice’.

TABLE 1
QUANTITATIVE COMPARISON OF ‘DRISCOLL OJAI’,
‘DRISCOLL EL CAPITAN’ AND ‘DRISCOLL VENICE’
	‘Driscoll	‘Driscoll El	‘Driscoll
	Ojai’	Capitan’	Venice’
Plant Characteristics
Height of Plant (cm)	22.6	20.8	18.5
Spread of Plant (cm)	32.1	31.0	31.5
Number of Crowns	4.1	4.0	3.2
Leaf Characteristics
Terminal Leaflet Length (cm)	7.4	6.7	6.3
Terminal Leaflet Width (cm)	7.0	6.0	6.5
Terminal Leaflet	1.06	1.12	0.96
Length/Width Ratio
# Teeth/Terminal Leaflet	22.0	20.0	23.7
Color of upper side	137A	147A	147A
	medium	dark green	dark green
	green
Color of under side	147D	147C	139C
	light to	light to	light to
	medium	medium	medium
	green	green	green
Petiole Length (cm)	15.5	13.5	12.2
Petiole Diameter (mm)	3.0	3.1	3.5
Petiole Color	145C	149A	149A
	yellow green	yellow green	yellow green
Petiolule Length (mm)	7.6	8.1	5.9
Petiolule Diameter (mm)	1.8	1.7	1.8
Petiolule Color	145B	149A	149A
	yellow green	yellow green	yellow green
Bract Frequency	42%	0%	8%
	typically		typically
	paired		single
Stipule Length (cm)	3.8	3.9	3.7
Stipule Width (cm)	0.94	0.93	0.95
Stolon Characteristics
Anthocyanin color	61C	58A
	purple red	purple red
Diameter at bract (mm)	3.16	2.51
Avg. # of Daughter plants	62 (2003	61.8 (2002	71 (2002
	Nursery)	Nursery)	Nursery)
Flower Characteristics
Petal Length (cm)	1.28	1.31	1.40
Petal Width (cm)	1.23	1.28	1.32
Petal Length/Width Ratio	1.04	1.02	1.06
Flower Diameter (cm)	2.35	2.37	2.6
Calyx Diameter (cm)	4.3	4.24	4.94
Sepal Length (mm)	19.6	18.6	20.9
Sepal Width (cm)	9.49	8.33	9.67
Color of Upper and Lower	155C	155C	155C
Surface of Petal	white	white	white
Receptical Color	1A	7A	7A
	yellow	yellow	yellow
Anther Color	12A	13A	13A
	yellow	yellow	yellow
Fruiting Truss Length (cm)	27.9	24.8	18.2
Fruit Characteristics
Fruit Length (cm)	4.6	4.3	4.5
Fruit Width (cm)	3.7	3.3	4.2
Fruit Length/Width Ratio	1.27	1.32	1.06
Average Berry Weight (g)	26.8	26.3	30.6
External Color	46A	53A	45A
	dark red	dark red	medium red
Internal Color	42B	43A	34A and
	medium red	red	155C orange
			red and
			white
Achene Coloration	59B to 9A	60A to 151A	60A to 15B
	dark red to	dark red to	dark red to
	yellow	yellow green	yellow
2003 Marketable Yield	712	661	592
(g/plant)

TABLE 2
QUALITATIVE COMPARISON OF ‘DRISCOLL OJAI’,
‘DRISCOLL EL CAPITAN’ AND ‘DRISCOLL VENICE’
	‘Driscoll	‘Driscoll	‘Driscoll
	Ojai’	El Capitan’	Venice’
Plant
Habit	globose	globose	globose
Canopy Density	open	medium	medium
		dense	dense
Vigor	strong	medium	medium
Leaf
Shape in cross section	concave	slightly	slightly
		concave	concave
Interveinal blistering	strong	strong	strong
Glossiness	medium	strong	strong
Number of leaflets	three only	three only	three only
Terminal leaflet margin profile	crenate	crenate	crenate
Terminal leaflet shape of base	rounded	rounded	rounded
Terminal leaflet shape of teeth	obtuse	obtuse	obtuse
Stipule pubescence	medium	sparse to	medium
		medium
Petiole pubescence	dense	dense	dense
Petiole pose of hairs	outwards	outward to	outward to
		downward	downward
Stolon
Anthocyanin coloration	weak	medium to	medium
		strong
Thickness	medium	thin	medium
Pubescence	weak	sparse to	medium to
		medium	dense
Inflorescence
Position relative to foliage	above	above	level to
			above
Diameter of calyx relative to	larger	larger	larger
corolla on secondary flowers
Diameter of inner calyx relative	larger	smaller to	smaller
to outer on secondary flowers		same size
Spacing of petals	touching	overlapping	touching to
			overlapping
Fruiting Truss
Attitude at first picking	prostrate	prostrate	prostrate
Fruit
Predominant shape	almost	cordate	cordate
	cylindrical
Difference in shapes between	moderate	marked	slight
primary and secondary fruits
Band without achenes	narrow	very narrow	very narrow
Unevenness of surface	weak to	weak to	weak
	medium	medium
Evenness of color	even	slightly	slightly
		uneven to	uneven to
		even	even
Glossiness	strong	strong	medium to
			strong
Insertion of achenes	level with	below to	level with
	surface	level with	surface
		the surface
Insertion of calyx	level	in a basin to	level to set
		level	above
Pose of the calyx segments	spreading	reflexed	reflexed
	to reflexed
Size of calyx in relation to fruit	same size	larger	larger
on secondary fruit	to larger
Adherence of calyx	medium to	strong	strong
	strong
Firmness of flesh	firm	firm	medium
Evenness of flesh color	slightly	even	uneven
	uneven
Distribution of flesh color	marginal	marginal and	only
	and	central	marginal
	central
Hollow center size	medium	large	small to
			medium
Sweetness	strong	strong	strong
Texture when tasted	fine to	fine	medium
	medium
Acidity	medium	medium	weak
Time of First Flowering After	mid-	mid-	late-
Planting in 2004	December	December	December
Harvest Interval in 2005	late	late January	late January
	January to	to	to
	late-May	late-May	late-May
Type of Bearing	partially	partially	partially
	ever-	everbearing	everbearing
	bearing

REACTION TO STRESS, PESTS, AND DISEASE

TABLE 3
REACTIONS TO STRESS PESTS AND DISEASES FOR
‘DRISCOLL OJAI’, ‘DRISCOLL EL CAPITAN’ AND
‘DRISCOLL VENICE’
		‘Driscoll	‘Driscoll
	‘Driscoll Ojai’	El Capitan’	Venice’
Reaction to Pests
Tetranychus urticae	moderately	moderately	moderately
	resistant	resistant	resistant
Lygus hesperus	susceptible	susceptible	susceptible
Reaction To Diseases
Botrytis fruit rot	moderately	moderately	moderately
	susceptible	susceptible	susceptible
Powdery mildew	moderately	moderately	moderately
	susceptible	resistant	resistant
Verticillium wilt	susceptible	susceptible	susceptible
Strawberry Mottle Virus	moderately	moderately	moderately
	resistant	resistant	resistant
Xanthomonas fragariae	moderately	moderately	moderately
	susceptible	susceptible	susceptible

ISOZYME ANALYSIS

In addition to the morphological description above, the new cultivar ‘Driscoll Ojai’ has been analyzed to obtain an indication of its genetic makeup to provide further means for identifying the new variety and distinguishing it from other somewhat similar and/or related strawberry varieties. Specifically, leaf samples of ‘Driscoll Ojai’. ‘Driscoll El Capitan’ and ‘Driscoll Venice’ were analyzed by electrophoresis for isozyme patterns of the enzymes phosphoglucoisomerase (“PGI”), leucine aminopeptidase (“LAP”) and phosphoglucomutase (“PGM”). See J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 106:684-687. Isozyme characterization of the three varieties is presented in Table 4, with the letters representing the banding patterns for each enzyme as designated in the above-identified article.

TABLE 4
ISOZYME ANALYSIS FOR ‘DRISCOLL OJAI’,
‘DRISCOLL EL CAPITAN’ AND ‘DRISCOLL VENICE’
		‘Driscoll	‘Driscoll El	‘Driscoll
	Locus	Ojai’	Capitan’	Venice’
	PGI	A1	A2	A4
	LAP	B3	B3	B3
	PGM	C2	C4	C2

Claims

1. A new and distinct variety of strawberry plant, substantially as shown and described.