ARS | Publication request: Report on 2007-2008 High Tunnel Studies

Submitted to: University of Maryland Strawberry Growers Twilight Meeting
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: May 17, 2008
Publication Date: May 21, 2008
Citation: Takeda, F., Newell, M. Report on 2007-2008 High Tunnel Studies. University of Maryland Strawberry Growers Twilight Meeting. Pg. 9-12.

Technical Abstract: New management strategies are needed to produce strawberry planting materials that will fruit in off-season in the mid-Atlantic coast region. Also, a better understanding of mechanisms that control flowering in strawberries is needed to improve fall flowering in short-day type cultivars. When plug plants were made in early July and kept in propagation trays at high density until they were planted on 1 September, fall flowering was induced in over 90 percent of transplants but less than 30 percent of early August plugged transplants flowered in fall. We attributed the high flowering response in July plugged plants to absence of red light getting through to transplant crowns. In the present work, we maintained transplants at high density in July and August, and illuminated the crowns with red light in August. Red light treatment caused a significant decrease in fall flowering. This knowledge will be used to produce strawberry transplants that will produce fruit from October to late December and following spring. These transplants will allow growers to have two harvests within a year from one planting.