Seascape
Bred from Selva and Douglas, and it took the useful half of each — the day-neutral habit from one, the fruit quality from the other.
Day-neutral
At a glance
- Bred by
- University of California (Davis programme)
- Parentage
- ‘Selva’ × ‘Douglas’, crossed 1983
- First fruited
- Wolfskill Experimental Orchards, Davis, 1984
- Patent
- US Plant Patent PP7614
- Flowering type
- Day-neutral
- Time to fruit
- About three months from planting, any planting date
- Noted for
- High flavour, high yield, large firm symmetrical fruit
Where it came from
Seascape came from a 1983 cross of ‘Selva’ with ‘Douglas’, first fruited at Wolfskill near Davis in 1984 as Cal 83.49-1.
Its parents are worth noting together. Selva contributed the day-neutral habit; Douglas is the same cultivar that stands behind both Chandler and Camarosa, and it contributed fruit quality. Seascape is the point where those two Californian lines meet.
How it behaves
Like Selva it commences fruiting about three months after planting, whatever the planting date and whether from fresh-dug or cold-storage plants, given satisfactory growing conditions.
Where it improves on its parent is the fruit. It is noted for high flavour, high yield, large size, firmness, symmetry and attractive appearance — an unusually broad claim, and the reason it is the day-neutral most people reach for first.
In the Indian belt
Seascape is on the reported lists for India rather than being a belt mainstay, and the same caution applies as to Selva: day-neutral cropping through a Deccan summer is an experiment, not an established practice.
If you are going to test day-neutral behaviour at all, this is the more sensible cultivar to test it with. It carries Selva's flexibility with materially better fruit, so a trial that works is a trial you can sell the output of.
Other varieties
