EFFECTS OF COLD STORAGE LENGTH ON PHYSIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF CULTIVARS ‘CLERY’ AND ‘ELSANTA’

Tray plants of the cultivars ‘Clery’ and ‘Elsanta’ have been cold stored.
Four
different levels of cold, at 2°C, have been tested: 500, 1,000, 1,500 and 2,700 h.
After
the storage, tray plants have been cultivated in a greenhouse.
The plants have been
monitored to evaluate how the amount of cold could affect their growth and
production.
A sample of all types of cold stored plants has been destroyed, to analyze
the mineral composition and the reserve substances and to verify how cold storage
influenced these contents in the different organs.
It was possible to observe how the
cold storage modifies the length of the first and second axis of the inflorescence.
The
average lengths of all inflorescence axes ranged between 3.5 to 6.7 cm.
In all the
treatments, except for the first 500 h in a cold chamber, differences in dry weight
and in macro-and microelements content among amount of hours in the cold storage
were also found.
The fresh and dry weights of plants have been measured.
The
weight loss observed showed a reduction ranging from 4 to 4.8 times, respectively for
‘Elsanta’ and ‘Clery’. This means that samples of ‘Clery’ had a higher water
content.

VII International Strawberry Symposium

S. Musacchi, S. Serra, V. Ancarani, R. Wiedmer, A. Martinelli

storability, tray plant, strawberry

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2014.1049.160