Influence of Different Strawberry Transplant Orders on Transplant Production, Yield and Fruit Quality Under Low Plastic Tunnels

Abstract

This study was carried out during 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 seasons in two experiments. The first was conducted to investigate the effect of four strawberry nursery mother plant orders, i.e., nucleus, foundation, registered and certified and two promising cultivars, i.e., Tamar and Festival on number and quality of transplants in the nursery. The second experiment aimed to study the same treatments on yield and fruit quality using transplants derived from the above mentioned orders and cultivars. A split plot design was adopted. Results of the first experiment indicated that nucleus plant order showed the highest values of number of transplants/plant, number of roots and crown diameter/transplant. Plants derived from foundation order exhibited the highest values in crown diameter and root length. Also, plants derived from certified order showed the highest root length. As for the cultivar effect, Tamar cultivar showed higher significant values in number of transplants/plant and number of roots than Festival, while Festival plants indicated significant increases in root length and plant height as compared with Tamar. Results of the interaction showed that nucleus plants of Festival cv exhibited the highest values of number of transplants while plants derived from nucleus Tamar showed the highest values of root length and transplant height. Results of the second experiment indicate that transplants derived from nucleus order showed the lowest values of early yield while those derived from foundation order exhibited the highest values of fruit firmness and total acidity. The highest early and total yields as well as total soluble solids were produced from plants derived from registered order. Results showed also that Festival cv, showed higher values of early and total yield and total acidity than Tamar while Tamar fruits indicated higher total soluble solids and ascorbic acid than Festival. The interaction show that plants derived from registered Festival cv gave the highest values of early and total yield while the heaviest fruits were harvested from plants derived from nucleus Tamar cv. The study conclude that it could be recommended to use registered plants (the second generation from tissue culture plants) of Festival to obtain high early and total yield for local market also with high acidity and firmness for export markets.