Breeding
Where is the tanker heading? The Lubera breeding programme 2026-2030
How do you steer a breeding programme? How do you decide what to do – and what not to do? Where do you continue to invest, and where do you cut back? And which of Lubera’s breeding initiatives are likely to cause the biggest stir over the next two to ten years?
Read moreCooltropics® winter-hardy passion fruit: Progress and outlook for breeding Passiflora incarnata
Winter-hardy passion fruit that reliably flowers and fruits even in Central Europe – for a long time, this was considered a horticultural dream. However, Passiflora incarnata, originally native to North American regions with a pronounced continental climate and adapted to very hot summers and cold winters, has precisely the robustness needed for successful cultivation in Central Europe. In the Lubera breeding programme, we are working to adapt this robust wild species to the conditions of...
Read moreGamechanger® - Making blackberry cultivation easy
Looking at the plants sold in the home gardening market, blackberries account for only about 15–20% of total Rubus sales. There are many reasons for this. The dominance of raspberries can also be explained by the simplification of cultivation due to the emergence of autumn raspberries. It is precisely this event, this Gamechanger®, that we are preparing for in 2027 with a new blackberry family.
Read moreThe dominance of raspberries and blackberries in the berry market
The dominance of Rubus berries (raspberries and blackberries) in the home gardening market is undisputed, but even greater than one might think. This has many implications for product range planning and marketing. Even though it is a good strategy to develop other types of berries and fruits and promote their sales, there is no way around raspberries and blackberries if we want to increase the overall market share of berry plants in home gardens. The only way to do this is through innovation...
Read moreThe vegetable breeding of Lubera
In addition to fruit and berries, we are expanding our vegetable range to become the third pillar of the Lubera Edibles young plant programme. This step is only logical: if our love for young plants literally goes through the stomach, then vegetables are naturally part of that. In addition, interest in growing your own high-quality vegetables in the garden or on the balcony is growing steadily – and this is exactly where our breeding work comes in.
Read moreBreeding for tomorrow – a review of the year
Plant breeding is like an iceberg. You see the tip, the new varieties – but you usually don't know what lies beneath in terms of years and decades, costs and efforts, failures and successes. On the other hand, breeding has the nice habit of always looking ahead, of literally producing the future. Looking back is therefore always looking forward.
Read moreOpenSky® – Resistant fruit vegetables for successful home gardening
In our new series of articles, we will be introducing you to the diversity of our vegetable seedling assortments. We are kicking off with OpenSky® fruit vegetables – a selection of particularly robust varieties that are just as impressive in home gardens as they are in professional sales. A glance at the sales figures at lubera.com shows that almost every second vegetable plant sold belongs to the fruit vegetable group – no wonder, as it includes popular vegetables such as...
Read moreThe long road to self-fertile berry varieties – using the example of Mayberries/Firstberries® and golden currants/Fourberries®
Contrary to popular belief, most plants (at least in an undomesticated state) are not self-fertile, i.e. they cannot fertilise themselves, but normally need a cross-pollinator, another variety of the same species. For cultivated plants or for plants that are to become cultivated plants, self-fertility is certainly a desirable characteristic. In this article, Markus Kobelt shows how Lubera® breeding attempts to obtain self-fertile varieties in Ribes aureum fruit varieties and in Lonicera...
Read moreCassissima® blackcurrants as plant of the year 2026
Lubera and Lubera Edibles are making 2026 the year of blackcurrants, more precisely the year of our Cassissima® new varieties. For this purpose, the Cassissima® varieties from Lubera® will be specially promoted and highlighted in the consumer market and also BtoB (Taspo, Gabot) in 2026. What are the main reasons for this step, for the promotion of such Cinderella fruits? And is there even a market for them? How important are blackcurrants in the berry plant market and what are the...
Read moreGold Medal for our variety introduction Passiflora Cooltropics® Snowstar®
The ‘Innovert Competition’ is held in France every year. This is where companies present their best new variety introductions in horticulture. Together with our French partner, Travers Nurseries, we submitted the white-flowering passionflower Cooltropics® Snowstar® this year. The variety comes from our own breeding programme for hardy passion fruit and was launched on the market this year.
We were delighted when the winners were announced and Snowstar® stood at the top of the podium and won...
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