Healthy planting material is an important requirement for the successful propagation of their fruits. The production of our own mother plant materials is therefore a significant step to guarantee a healthy propagation of the plants. From our own experiences we know, that new plant diseases most often arise locally bevor spreading over bigger cultivation areas. This is the reason why we, here at Kraege Beerenpflanzen, work in a „closed system”. We built up our own production for mother plants at an isolated and independent operating site. The risk of infection through plants from other companies can therefore be prevented.
The propagation of our elite plants starts with a thermotherapy. Meristem tissue for an „in vitro cultivation” is gathered off the plants which grow in heat cabinets. The combination of the thermotherapy and the „in vitro culture” is the procedure that offers us maximum security for a production of mother plants free from infection.
The following steps of propagation now take place solely in form of a vegetative reproduction through stolons, which happens in a saran house. The tightly woven, gauze-like saran fabric prevents in sects from entering the house and infecting the plants with viruses.
Mother plants as well as seedlings are grown on table beds, in safe distance from the ground bed, so that infection by soil fungi is excluded. For extra safety, the super-elite plants (SEE) produced in the saran house are inspected for diseases on an annual basis.
The super-elite plants (SEE) are then propagated on a special site, far away from other strawberry plantations. The resulting elite mother plants (EE) are used for the production of commercial plant material and are subject to constant supervision by the Chamber of Agriculture. In 2019, the regulations for the production of certified strawberry planting material, which apply to the whole European Union, were also implemented in Germany.
Since 2019, all of the plants that are produced by Kraege are certified with the standard EPPO PM 4/11 (2) EU. For internal quality assurance, Kraege Beerenpflanzen is QS-certified.