Flowering and fruiting of day-neutral and ever-bearing strawberry cultivars in high-elevation for summer and autumn fruit production in Korea

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the flowering and fruiting of day-neutral (DN) and ever-bearing (EB) cultivars in high-elevation in Korea. Six DN and five EB cultivars were established in bench-top substrate culture system in high tunnel. Plug transplants were planted on 5 May, 2011 and complete nutrition was supplied during the whole experimentation. Fruit harvest started in early June, and lasted until middle November. Fruit yield was significantly different among DN and EB, and individual cultivars. Generally, summer flower came out earlier and resulted in more summer yield for EB cultivars than for the DN cultivars. However, DN cultivars produced higher autumn yield than EB cultivars. Fruits of DN cultivars showed harder firmness, bigger size, less malformed fruits, deeper surface colors than those of EB cultivars. Fruit surface colors significantly varied with the progressive seasons and an interactive effect between cultivars and harvest time on fruit surface colors was found. Among DN cultivars, ‘San Andreas’ not only showed some typical DN characters such as big fruit and hard firmness, but also showed high values of color parameters. Among EB cultivars, ‘Charlotte’ and ‘Goha’ combination can realize even fruit supply in summer and autumn. Combination of DN cultivar and EN cultivar not only can realize even fruit supply but also can fulfill both fresh consumption and processing purposes in summer and autumn season.