Winterhardiness in Strawberries for the Pacific Northwest1

Abstract

Winter injury is the greatest limiting factor in strawberry production in southwestern British Columbia and northwestern Washington. In recent years the problem has been accentuated by the susceptibility of the widely grown cultivar ‘Northwest’ to injury. During the winter of 1968-1969, conditions were such that severe injury occurred in strawberry plantings throughout the region. It was possible, therefore, to assess the relative winter hardiness of various cultivars and advanced selections, from the strawberry breeding programs in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, which had been placed at 5 locations in 1968. All the cultivars or selections were more winter hardy than Northwest and several appeared to have an outstanding level of hardiness. Some of the more hardy selections have as good processing quality as Northwest and at least one is likely to replace it within the next few years.