PHYTOTRON RESEARCH INVESTIGATIONS WITH CONDITIONED ‘SWEET CHARLIE’ AND ‘CAMAROSA’ PLUGS

Three week old strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch., cvs Sweet Charlie and Camarosa) plug plants were exposed to 8-hr short days (S) and 8-hr days with 3 hrs of low-level incandescent radiation (45 μmol.s^-1.m^-2) mid-nyctoperiod (N) to yield four photoperiod treatments: NNN, NNS, NSS and SSS, where each letter indicates 7 days under each photoperiod.
Photoperiod treatments were given at either 10 or 16°C night temperature (22°C day) in ‘B’ chambers at the NCSU Phytotron.
A control set of plugs was maintained under natural daylength in a greenhouse.
Plants were set in a nursery waiting bed in the mountains of western North Carolina on 14 Sept. 1995. Plants were dug then shipped to Plant City, Florida on 24 Oct. 1995 and planted in a commercial winter production field.
Fully ripe fruit were harvested from 2 Dec. 1995 until 16 Feb. 1996 and non-marketable fruit were culled.
Short day conditioning of plug plants prior to planting in Florida significantly enhanced early (Dec.) yield in both cultivars.
The temperature at which plugs were conditioned did not influence early yield in either cultivar.
In ‘Sweet Charlie’, total yield was not affected by photoperiod or temperature.
In ‘Camarosa’, conditioning at 10°C significantly enhanced total yield.

XXV International Horticultural Congress, Part 3: Culture Techniques with Special Emphasis on Environmental Implications, Disease, Pest Control and Integrated Pest Strategies

E.F. Durner, E.B. Poling

Fragaria x ananassa, floral initiation, photoperiod, temperature

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1998.513.48