Influence of crown size on plant growth, flowering and yield of day-neutral strawberry cultivars

The use of cold-stored transplants is becoming popular for strawberry production, replacing fresh dug bareroot transplants, the vigor of which are determined by crown size. Three cultivars of day-neutral strawberry, 'Albion', 'Seascape', and 'San Andreas' were grown at Daegwallyong Research Center, Korea inside a glasshouse during the summer growing season. Since crown size of strawberry transplants is associated with transplants vigor, this experiment was carried out to evaluate plant growth, development and fruit yield of the strawberry plants from cold-storage bare root transplants with different crown diameters. Three classes of crown diameters (small, medium and large) were compared in a 3x3 factorial in a completely randomized experimental design with four replications. Transplants were planted April 17, 2013. Ripe fruits were harvested from June 11 to August 21, 2013 and fresh fruit yield was determined, while plant growth and development were determined at the end of experiment. Number of leaves, shoot dry weight, number of crowns, and fruit yield were significantly different among three cultivars. 'Seascape' tended to show best performance of vegetative and fruiting characteristics compared to the other cultivars. There were no interactions between cultivars and crown diameter on plant growth and fruit yield. Bigger crown diameters significantly induced earlier flower initiation, but crown diameter did not affect plant growth and fruit yield of the three cultivars. This result suggested that crown size itself is not an important factor determining growth and yield of day neutral strawberry from cold-stored transplants.