Strawberry plant propagation: Evaluation of cultivars using different growing environments and assessment approaches

Authors: Lewers, Kimberly; Vinyard, Bryan

Submitted to: HortScience
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/31/2025
Publication Date: 3/28/2025
Citation: Lewers, K.S., Vinyard, B.T. 2025. Strawberry plant propagation: Evaluation of cultivars using different growing environments and assessment approaches. HortScience. 60(5):667–673. https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI18445-25.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI18445-25

Interpretive Summary: One of the most challenging stages in successful release and transfer of new strawberry cultivars to growers is the propagation from a few plants to hundreds of thousands of plants for commercial production. Commercial nurseries propagate cultivars from the daughter plants produced on runners from mother plants. Information about the number of runners or daughter plants that a new cultivar produces has rarely been reported in release notices. We grew ten cultivars for runner and daughter plant evaluation in different growing environments relevant to commercial strawberry nurseries: two different field production systems and a screenhouse production system. Strawberry plants grown in the field under low tunnels covered with a light-filtering plastic film produced 32% more runners and 72% more daughters per plant than the same cultivars grown in the field without low tunnels. Plants grown in the screenhouse environment produced between four- and thirteen-fold greater numbers of daughters per mother plant compared to plants grown in the field without tunnels. The number of daughter plants per individual runner was not significantly different between growing environments. The higher daughter production rate that occurred in the screenhouse means this method may be most beneficial for initial propagation of new cultivars. This research will be valuable for breeders and nurseries in successful release and propagation of new cultivars for commercial production.

Technical Abstract: Our objectives were to: 1) characterize cultivars according to production of crowns, runners, and daughter plants, and determine if cultivar plant part propagation would vary according to production system; 2) determine if propagation of daughter plants would vary between field environments and production in tubs in a screenhouse; and 3) determine how well subjective scores for vigor and runner production predict objective data from the same plots. Ten cultivars were grown in an annual plasticulture system for four years. Four of these cultivars also were grown in a low-tunnel production system in adjacent fields. Three months after planting, immediately following a plot-based subjective rating for plant vigor and runner production, the number of crowns, runners, and daughter plants were counted. The same ten cultivars were planted each year in tubs of potting mix in a screenhouse. In late fall, all plants were dug from each tub and counted. The four cultivars, Camarosa, Chandler, Flavorfest, and Keepsake, grown in plasticulture and under low tunnels produced 32% more runners and 72% more daughters per plant under low tunnels than in annual plasticulture with no cultivar by system interaction. The number of runners determined the number of daughters produced, as different cultivars produced different numbers of runners and daughters, but there was no evidence of differences between cultivars for the number of daughters per runner, estimates of which ranged from 1.5 to 2.6. Plants grown in tubs in a screenhouse produced between four- and thirteen-fold the number of daughters per mother plant than plants grown in annual plasticulture. Subjective scores for runner production were well associated with runner counts, but subjective scores for vigor were not well associated with counts of crowns or crowns plus runners. The higher daughter production rate that occurred in screenhouse tubs means this method may be most beneficial for initial propagation by breeders and nurseries to increase plant numbers of a new cultivar. Runner-tip producers can harvest tips from multiple cultivars when two daughters per runner have viable root initials.