Several threads on here about breeding new types of various fruit varieties by members . That leads to the question of if successful at it what then ? Is there hope (or a path) to open up a market for a new variety ?
Sure, not easy but yes. First you need a patent, so it’s going to cost about 10 grand to set that all up. Hire a patent lawyer to help prepare paperwork. Next you need farmers to trial the new selection. If trials go well, you’re all set! All you need is a nursery to grow out the cultivar and sell it.
I talked to Pete Tallman the breeder of the Niwot primocane fruiting black raspberry. It took about 20 years to get the raspberry to market. His first raspberry failed in trials and he had to go back to the drawing board. The patent was useless. His 2nd one was good, and trials went well. He got Nourse Farms to clone and sell.
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I would think this would be the hard part ( finding a nursery to take on a new variety )
Yes, the farming trials have to look good, and you have to sell the results to the nursery. Without a patent they would steal it Of course you could decide just to give it away. The Dwarf Tomato Project has made now over 70 tomato cultivars and they are all free. Victory seeds is selling a lot of the cultivars.
Many of the people involved in breeding tomatoes also breed potatoes. They developed a lot of new potatoes too.
The market for commercial growers is different than the home grower market. For the commercial market, blackberries for example, are planted and monitored for at least 10 years of more. If you wanted to go direct to home growers, I don’t think you would need to be as diligent in your trials since the typical investment is rather small compared to $1000’s for commercial growers. You see a lot of the commercial rejects show up in the home grower market like PA Freedom. Gurney’s sells a number of reject blackberry (e.g. Black Magic and Heaven Can’t Wait) )and raspberry varieties (like Sweet Repeat) that are perfectly fine for consumers. Those varieties were too soft to ship so they are not suitable for commercial growers. Same with the Ka-bluey blueberry.
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It’s not always clear what market is what. The Romance series cherries are grown in both markets. Developed for the commercial market, but offered to both. MSU is doing trials right now for use in my area. Since we grow a lot of tart cherries here.
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