Higher Temperatures Decrease Fruit Size in Strawberry Growing in the Subtropics
Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, P.O. Box 5053, SCMC, Nambour, QLD 4560, Australia
Academic Editors: Douglas D. Archbold and Esmaeil Fallahi
Horticulturae 2021, 7(2), 34; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae7020034
Received: 8 December 2020 / Revised: 2 February 2021 / Accepted: 12 February 2021 / Published: 23 February 2021
(This article belongs to the Section Fruit Production Systems)
Five strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) cultivars were grown in Queensland, Australia to determine whether higher temperatures affect production. Transplants were planted on 29 April and data collected on growth, marketable yield, fruit weight and the incidence of small fruit less than 12 g until 28 October. Additional data were collected on fruit soluble solids content (SSC) and titratable acidity (TA) from 16 September to 28 October. Minimum temperatures were 2 °C to 4 °C higher than the long-term averages from 1965 to 1990. Changes in marketable yield followed a dose-logistic pattern (p < 0.001, R2s = 0.99). There was a strong negative relationship between fruit weight (marketable) and the average daily mean temperature in the four or seven weeks before harvest from 29 July to 28 October (p < 0.001, R2s = 0.90). There were no significant relationships between SSC and TA, and temperatures in the eight days before harvest from 16 September to 28 October (p > 0.05). The plants continued to produce a marketable crop towards the end of the season, but the fruit were small and more expensive to harvest. Higher temperatures in the future are likely to affect the economics of strawberry production in subtropical locations.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
climate; cultivar; fruit growth; harvest; strawberry; temperature; yield
▼
Show Figures
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Menzel, C. Higher Temperatures Decrease Fruit Size in Strawberry Growing in the Subtropics. Horticulturae 2021, 7, 34. https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae7020034
AMA Style
Menzel C. Higher Temperatures Decrease Fruit Size in Strawberry Growing in the Subtropics. Horticulturae. 2021; 7(2):34. https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae7020034
Chicago/Turabian StyleMenzel, Christopher. 2021. "Higher Temperatures Decrease Fruit Size in Strawberry Growing in the Subtropics" Horticulturae 7, no. 2: 34. https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae7020034
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
Search more from Scilit