Effect of Time of Planting, Plant Size, and Nursery-growing Environment on the Performance of ‘Festival’ Strawberry in a Subtropical Environment

Abstract

<jats:p>Experiments were conducted to determine the effect of time of planting, plant size, and nursery-growing environment on the performance of bare-rooted ‘Festival’ strawberry plants (<jats:italic>Fragaria</jats:italic> ×<jats:italic>ananassa</jats:italic>) at Nambour in southeastern Queensland, Australia, over 3 years. Yields were best with a planting in mid-March (1013 g/plant), with lower yields with a planting in early March (711 g/plant), late March/early April (765 g/plant), mid-April (671 g/plant), or late April/early May (542 g/plant). Plants obtained from Stanthorpe in southern Queensland, a warm-growing environment, were just as productive (695 g/plant) as those from Toolangi in Victoria (710 g/plant) or Kempton in Tasmania (701 g/plant), two cool-growing environments. In contrast, large plants from these nurseries with crown diameters ranging from 10 to 17 mm had 17% higher yields than small plants with crown diameters ranging from 6 to 10 mm (751 vs. 642 g/plant). These results suggest that planting in mid-March is optimal for ‘Festival’ in this environment. Lower yields with an earlier planting reflected the small size of the plants, whereas lower yields with later plantings reflected the shorter growing seasons. It can also be concluded that plant size is more important than nursery-growing environment in determining the productivity of strawberry fields in southeastern Queensland.</jats:p>

Effect of Time of Planting and Plant Size on the Productivity of ‘Festival’ and ‘Florida Fortuna’ Strawberry Plants in a Subtropical Environment

“…These experiments confirm that time of planting and plant size affect the performance of 'Festival' transplants growing in southeastern Queensland (Menzel and Smith, 2011). They The data were also pooled across the three times of planting or the two plant sizes; 1 cm 2 = 0.1550 inch 2 , 1 g = 0.0353 oz.…”

“…The quality of transplants can vary greatly with location within the nursery and also with the sorting and grading in the packhouse. Menzel and Smith (2011) showed that there were small differences in the size of 'Festival' transplants planted from late March/early April to late April/ early May at Stanthorpe. In those experiments, the transplants planted in early March were smaller (2.5 g/plant) than those planted later (3.2 to 3.7 g/ plant).…”

“…The strawberry plants were grown as commercial crops as described by Menzel and Toldi (2010). The stock for this experiment was planted after the optimum time of planting (Menzel and Smith, 2011) because growers do not receive transplants of this cultivar until late March.…”

“…The present experiments were different to the previous research in southeastern Queensland (Menzel and Smith, 2011) in that the treatments involved small and large transplants planted at different times and included 'Florida Fortuna'. It was proposed that the small transplants would yield proportionally less than large transplants as planting was delayed.…”

“…Y ields of bare-rooted 'Festival' strawberry plants in southeastern Queensland, Australia, were best with a planting in mid-March, with lower yields with earlier or later plantings (Menzel and Smith, 2011). In contrast, large plants with crown diameters ranging from 10 to 17 mm had higher yields than small plants with crown diameters ranging from 6 to 10 mm.…”