Evaluation of strawberry runner production in controlled environment agriculture systems

The expansion of strawberry production in controlled environment agriculture (CEA) systems in the inland US has increased the need for optimized cultivars for these systems.
While several strawberry cultivars primarily bred for open fields have been grown in the northeastern US, several challenges prevail in the southern region to achieve optimum strawberry production in CEA. Rising CEA production increases demand for strawberry runners beyond the field planting seasons.
Therefore, understanding the genetics of runnering and breeding for optimized runner production for CEA has emerged as an important trait.
To assess the runnering performance, 47 strawberry accessions were grown in a greenhouse in a soilless substrate under natural light and phenotyped for total runner count at 75 days post-transplanting.
Similarly, seven accessions were grown under LED lights in a growth chamber at 21°C. Large genetic variation was observed, ranging from 0 to 18 runners accession^‑1 in the greenhouse, whereas four to 31 runners in the growth chamber.
While 16 genotypes did not produce any runners in the greenhouse, 10 produced more than 10 runners.
In the growth chamber, all accessions except one produced more than five runners during the experimental period.
Further research is being carried out to make parental selections for genetic analyses.
The accessions producing zero and the highest runner counts will be selected to generate mapping populations to study the genetics underlying the runner production in the selected germplasm for CEA.

International Symposium on Biotechnological Tools in Horticulture

K. Bhattarai

Fragaria sp., runner production, controlled environment agriculture

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2026.1454.74