A premium variety with an exceptional flavour
- Excellent taste and flavour
- Premium intense red strawberries
- Short-day variety with mid chill requirement
- Strong powdery mildew tolerance
Breeder’s reference: 14-054-03, CPVO application number 2024/2216
The variety
Fardao is Flevo Berry’s newest short-day variety and stands out in the mid-season segment due to its excellent flavour. Thanks to its natural aromas, the fruits are always full of flavour, ensuring an intense taste experience. The variety performs optimally during periods of long daylight, but the fruit’s flavour and setting remain good even under more challenging conditions.
The plants produce large, uniform berries with an attractive, deep red colour. They remain firm, even when temperatures rise.
The cultivation
Fardao is suitable for cultivation on tabletops or in a greenhouse. For high production, a heavier plant type with multiple crowns is desirable. In the case of spring cultivation, a tray plant with more than five trusses is recommended. For autumn or double-crop cultivation in the greenhouse, it is advisable to use a lighter plant type with approximately four trusses.
This variety has a significantly lower chilling requirement than the average June-bearer, ranging between 800 and 900 hours. Fardao’s flower initiation on the tray field starts relatively late, meaning that its turning point is later than Sonsation and comparable to Falco. Until that point, it is advisable to keep nitrogen levels low.
A strong powdery mildew tolerance on both leaves and fruit is characteristic of this variety. The compact, upright plant ensures the fruit is well-protected by the coarse leaves. Thanks to its open growth habit, the fruits are easy to pick, and crop work is simple to carry out. This variety’s production period falls between Falco and Sonsation. Furthermore, due to the excellent pollen quality of the first flowers, the variety is suitable for forcing, enabling early greenhouse production.
Harvest and sales
Fardao’s well-set, intensely red fruits are best when not picked too early. By allowing the fruits to fully colour, the flavour develops optimally and becomes more intense. This variety’s fruit seeds have the same colour as the fruit skin, which makes the fruit extra attractive.
Fardao is not susceptible to bruising, which means the fruits excellently retain their quality and flavour during storage. The strawberries are suitable for direct sales but also fit into the premium retail segment.