Growth and Yield as Affected by Controlled Crowns of the New Ever-bearing Strawberry 'Goha' in Highlands

摘要

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of crown numbers on growth and yield of ever-bearing strawberry [Fragaria * ananassa Duch.) 'Goha' cultivar. Strawberry seedlings were planted with 55 x 30 cm distance on April 29, and the randomizedblock experimental was designed by putting the crown numbers by 1, 3, 5 and crown-unremoved as the control. At the early growth stage, as the numbers of crown decreased, the size of leaf became larger and inflorescence diameter became thicker. Plant height became higher as the number of crown increased at the final harvesting time. Fresh weight of crown-unremoved plants was 118 g, showing 77.2 g higher than that of plants with one crown. Numbers of the developed inflorescence of plants with five crownsand crown-unremoved was 20.1, whereas 6.8 of plants with one crown, resulted in 13.3 more crowns. However, crown number did not significantly affect the fruit quality. As the crown number increased, the average fruit weight was lighter and the marketable fruit rate was shown to decrease significantly. The marketable yield of crown-unremoved plants was 17,372 kg-ha~(-1), showing 68% higher than plants with one crown. Therefore, crown management without thinning crowns was recommended and inflorescence thickness less than 3 mm should be removed for successful production of ever-bearing strawberry 'Goha' cultivar during summer season.