Journal of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences ISSN:2233-8322(Print) 2508-870X(Online) 농업생명환경연구

The use of cold storage transplants is becoming popular in summer strawberry production, replacing freshly dug bare-root transplants, in which the crown size indicates vigor. Three cultivars of day-neutral strawberry, Albion, Seascape, and San Andreas, were grown at the Daegwallyeong Research Center, Korea, inside a glasshouse during the summer growing season. Since the crown size of the strawberry transplant is associated with transplant vigor, this experiment was carried out to evaluate plant growth, development, and fruit yield of 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 3 × 3 factorial and completely randomized experimental design with four replications. Transplants were planted on April 17, 2013, and ripe fruits were harvested from June 11 to August 21, 2013. Fresh fruit yield was determined throughout the experiment, and plant growth and development were determined at the end of the experiment. The number of leaves, shoot dry weight, number of crowns, and fruit yield were significantly different among the three cultivars. Seascape showed the best vegetative and generative growth performance compared to the other cultivars. There was no correlation between the crown diameter, plant growth, or fruit yield of the cultivars; however, a larger crown diameter induced significantly earlier flower initiation. This result suggests that crown size is not an important indicator of the growth and yield of day-neutral strawberries from cold storage transplants.