Agronomic potential of nine strawberry cultivars for two consecutive cycles in a greenhouse

Abstract

The lack of information about strawberry cultivation for more than one production cycle ends up generating high costs for producers to acquire daughter plants to reestablish their crops. Therefore, aiming at technical alternatives for a transition to more sustainable crops, the objective of this work was to investigate whether strawberry cultivars grown in a greenhouse for two cycles differ in terms of yield potential and fruit chemical quality. The treatments were nine strawberry cultivars (‘Albion’, ‘Aromas’, ‘Camarosa’, ‘Camino Real’, ‘Fronteras’, ‘Merced’, ‘Monterey’, ‘Portola’, and ‘San Andreas’) and two production cycles (2019/2020 and 2020/2021), arranged in a randomized block design with six replications. The results showed that in the second cycle the ‘Aromas’, ‘Camarosa’, ‘Camino Real’, ‘Merced’, and ‘Monterey’ cultivars stood out in terms of the highest number of fruits produced. ‘Fronteras’ and ‘Merced’ had the highest total production of strawberries in the second cycle. ‘Merced’ and ‘Monterey’ produced the highest fruits in the first cycle and ‘Fronteras’ produced strawberries with the highest average fresh fruit mass in the second cycle. ‘Albion’ and ‘Camarosa’ stood out for the higher sugar content in the fruits produced. The least acidic and most flavorful strawberries were produced in the first cycle. In conclusion, strawberry cultivars grown in greenhouses for two cycles differ in terms of yield potential and chemical fruit quality. This study indicates that the nine cultivars can be grown for two consecutive cycles without compromising berry production.