PERFORMANCE OF HAND- AND MACHINE- DUG TRANSPLANTS IN THE FLORIDA PRODUCTION SYSTEM

Transplant quality can have a major effect on productivity of many crops.
Bare root transplants for Florida winter strawberry production are mainly produced in northern nurseries.
To improve efficiency and speed of operation, mechanical digging machines are used to remove plants from the soil at these nurseries.
In the course of this operation, transplant petioles and leaves may be crushed and/or broken.
Hand digging eliminates much of this damage.
Hand- and machine- dug bare root transplants of ‘Camarosa’ and ‘Sweet Charlie’ were obtained from a Nova Scotia nursery.
Transplants were planted at the GCREC-Dover field facility on 2 Nov 1999 and standard annual production practices were used to establish plants in the field.
Plots were harvested twice weekly beginning 5 Jan 2000. Digging method significantly affected early marketable yield.
Hand-dug transplants produced harvestable fruit sooner, and had a 60% increase in marketable yield during the first month of harvest compared to machine-dug transplants.
Fruit harvested early in the season typically has a substantially higher market value.
Therefore, hand-dug transplants may increase their early and overall yields offsetting the increased cost of hand-dug transplants.

IV International Strawberry Symposium

J.R. Duval, C. Chandler, D.E. Legard, P. Hicklenton

Fragaria x ananassa, strawberry

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2002.567.60