Phenology and Yield of Strawberry as Influenced by Planting Time and Genotypes in a Sub Tropical Region

Phenology and Yield of Strawberry

Abstract

Effects of planting time on phenology of five strawberry genotypes ?Sweet Charlie?, ?Festival?,
?Camarosa?, ?FA 008?, and ?BARI strawberry-1? were evaluated at Bangladesh Agricultural Research
Institute in two consecutive years 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. ?Sweet Charlie? took the shorter time to
begin flowering, followed by ?BARI Strawberry-1? and ?Festival? when planted in 1st October. Genotype
?FA 008? took longer time to flower when planted in 1st December. Days to flowering of all the varieties
was found to decrease with the increase in air temperature. Regardless of planting year, the genotype ?FA
005? followed by ?Camarosa? and ?Festival?, planted on 1st September, exhibited the longest harvest duration,
while ?Sweet Charlie? planted on 1st December exhibited the shortest harvest duration in both years.
Genotype ?Festival? planted on October yielded fruit with the greatest fruit weight, followed by ?Sweet
Charlie? and ?Camarosa? planted on the same date. Plants of ?FA 008? and ?BARI Strawberry-1? planted
in December produced minimum fruit weight. Maximum number of fruits/plant as well as yield/plant
obtained from ?Sweet Charlie? planted in October, while BARI Strawberry-1 planted in December yielded
the least. With the use of quadratic equation it was estimated that maximum yield was obtained at ambient
temperature 18.5 °C then it was decreased with the increase of temperature. Strawberry planted in early
October was found to be the most suitable in Bangladesh. Among the studied genotypes, ?Sweet Charlie?
was found to be superior in yield and early planting, and ?Camarosa? was suitable for late planting. ?Festival?
was found less sensitive to planting date.