Grower's book - News
Vegetable breeding: breeding the outdoor tomato Open Sky Happy Black®
Tomatoes are a good example of how breeding vegetable varieties for the garden works. Breeding is actually easy, but it takes a lot of perseverance and above all continuity until you can finally bring a variety onto the market after six to ten years. In the following, I will briefly explain what is involved in our outdoor tomato breeding programme and how we specifically bred the Happy Black® variety.
Read moreSell more and, above all, sell smarter in the face of buying reluctance and price sensitivity
In view of the darkening economy, consumers are becoming more price-sensitive. They tend to think twice about whether they really need something or can do without it. This trend is also reflected in the garden and is likely to intensify. Derived from this, however, there are also opportunities that plant producers, together with their customers, can make targeted use of.
As always, we at Lubera Edibles try to profit from the trends visible at Lubera.com; we want to learn from them. The sales at...
Read moreThe state of the soft fruit plant market
As a seller you are always in a rather uncomfortable situation. Anything you say can be used against you at any time...and it certainly will be used. By the way, this also applies to sellers of (young) plants...
How is this meant? The spoken and unspoken counter-arguments we always have ready when approached by a salesman: "He's only saying that to sell more..." In any case, with a salesperson one will always relate the truthfulness of his or her remarks to the communicative purpose...
Read moreBreeding as a pivotal point in the variety merry-go-round
In this short interview by Frederik Vollert, Lubera® breeder Raphael Maier talks about the latest developments, focal points and highlights in breeding, which mainly takes place in Buchs in the Swiss Rhine Valley.
Raphael Maier, what are the craziest breeding projects at Lubera® at the moment?
Well, of course I have the feeling that they are all a bit crazy. Probably the hardy passion fruits are already very extreme! Who would think of trying to establish the epitome of tropical fruit in cold...
Read moreSugarbeauties® – the new ornamental sweet potatoes from Lubera Edibles
When the Lubera® breeding team started breeding sweet potatoes a few years ago, the original and real focus was on improved, sweeter yielding varieties for hobby cultivation in the vegetable garden. During the selection work in the seedlings, however, we quickly noticed that the diversity in leaf colour and shape was quite large. Thus, it became clear relatively quickly that it was also worthwhile to select for these characteristics. This is what we did and we are just about to release the first...
Read moreCurrent breeding projects in Buchs - impressions of a photographer
How can you, I thought. But Markus " Merciless" Kobelt didn't let up: Yes, exactly, to invest 1-2 days with a photo shoot in the hottest August of all times (?) on the current breeding fields in Buchs, that was his latest job to me. Now I do like to take photos. But I prefer slightly overcast skies - of course just so that the photos turn out as good as possible, certainly not because of me... But what did I notice during the photo safari, armed with the camera and with the eyes of...
Read moreThe demand for berry plants
Actually, no one really knows the exact demand for berry plants. The market is too small for a statistically analysable survey to be worthwhile. By interpreting the sales figures of our online sister company Lubera.com for this small study, we can gain important insights into the natural demand for berry plants.
Read moreLubera France - plantez le bonheur!
As a breeding company for fruit, berries and vegetable plants, Lubera® knows no boundaries. It is in the very own interest of Lubera® and Lubera Edibles that new varieties and interesting cultivars help as many people as possible to become more successful in their gardens. While Lubera Edibles already delivers to all countries in Europe, the sister company Lubera AG has so far only been active in the German-speaking countries with Lubera.com. This is now about to change: Lubera à...
Read moreThe Curse of the Unity Berry Plants
In the last 10 years, a product form of the berry plant has become established that looks very similar with very many suppliers: A plant in a 2l container, usually accurately tied up, with a large, more or less eye-catching label.
It is not really the individual berry plant, the individual pot that is offered, but a fixed mixed assortment on a CC Trolley. What you then find on this CC is quite often a surprise bag, certainly many raspberries, fewer blackberries, surprisingly many blueberries and...
Read moreWasabi young plants – Japanese horseradish
The true wasabi plant (Eutrema japonica), also called Japanese horseradish, is a rare vegetable or spice plant that originated in Japan but is now cultivated worldwide. Everyone who regularly enjoys sushi is familiar with this green, spicy paste that brings tears to the eyes and is often touted as wasabi paste in Europe. But now the frightening truth: if at all, such pastes only include wasabi in the lower single-digit percentage range. The main ingredient is predominantly ordinary horseradish...
Read more