Varieties
Strawberry varieties that actually grow in India
Ten cultivars reported in Indian production, grouped by how they decide to flower — which is the first thing that matters, because most European and Japanese varieties simply will not set fruit through an Indian winter whatever else they promise.
Short-day
Flowers as day length shortens. This is what the belt runs on, and what the November-to-March window is built around.
Camarosa
The workhorse of the belt. Firm, dark and travels well, which makes it the default wherever fruit has to survive a night in transit.
Sweet Charlie
Early and strongly aromatic with softer flesh. Sells locally while it is the only fruit on the market, then moves into pulp.
Winter Dawn
Low chill requirement and high sugar. Gaining ground across the Panchgani plateau for exactly that reason.
Nabila
Large-fruited and uniform. Favoured wherever fruit is sold by count rather than by weight, which covers most gifting and hamper trade.
Chandler
The cultivar that established commercial strawberry growing in much of India, and still planted widely three decades on.
Strawberry Festival
A Florida release that does the unusual thing of holding flavour and firmness at once. Grown across the Panchgani plateau.
Rania
Nabila's sister selection, and the higher yielder of the two. Also reported in the Mahabaleshwar belt.
Day-neutral
Flowers on plant age rather than day length, fruiting roughly three months from planting whenever that is. The only route to fruit outside the normal window — and unproven here.
Infra short-day
A third category: initiates flower buds under relatively long light regimes within short-day conditions, and is largely insensitive to night temperature. Bred to crop early.
On the official list
What the government recommends is not what the belt plants
The National Horticulture Board’s recommended varieties for India read: Chandler, Tioga, Torrey, Selva, Belrubi, Fern and Pajaro, with Premier, Local Jeolikot, Dilpasand, Bangalore, Florida 90, Katrain Sweet, Pusa Early Dwarf and Blakemore also listed.
Almost none of those are what you will find going into the ground around Panchgani today. The gap is a useful reminder that the official guidance for this crop — including its cost model — has not kept pace with the belt.
Talk to us this week.
Volumes are committed early in the season. If you need fruit between November and March, the conversation starts now.