Description :
Attributes:
- Excellent flavor
- Uniformly well-shaped
- Bright red and glossy
- Good shelf life and transportability
- High percentage of large, marketable fruit
- Very early planting date and fruit onset
- Compact plant structure
- Excellent rain tolerance
- Low chill requirement
Fruit & Plant Characteristics:
The Florida Beauty variety originates from collaboration between the University of Florida (USA) and the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (Australia). This cultivar requires relatively little chilling in the nursery field. Fruit growers plant the variety before other cultivars in the fruiting field. The Florida Beauty is one of the earliest varieties to enter into production, it produces uniform fruit with exceptional flavor and fruit quality.
The Florida Beauty variety is unique for its compact plant habit, low chill requirement, and weak day-neutral flowering habit. In winter production regions, the cultivar produces high early yields in November and December. Production remains steady with little gapping throughout the season.
The Florida Beauty variety yields uniformly shaped fruit of medium size. The early fruit shows no sign of elongation. The fruit is firm and has excellent rain tolerance. The flavor and aroma of the Florida Beauty variety is considered very good with an excellent balance of sweetness and tartness.
Field Production:
With its early onset of flower and fruit formation, the Florida Beautyvariety requires high levels of nitrogen during the period of plant establishment. The plants respond to 2.25 – 3.37 kg of N per hectare per day early in the season. Growers should gradually taper off the N to about 0.84 kg per hectare per day once the plants are in full production. The selection of the right fertilization program must reflect the natural fertility of the soil as well as the requirements of the variety.
Disease Resistance:
Plants of the Florida Beauty variety are moderately resistant to Phytophthora root rot and moderately susceptible to acutatum fruit rot. Growers should intensively manage crop to control the infestation of Colletotrichum and powdery mildew.
*Characteristics may vary depending on weather conditions, day length, soil type and location.