Cultivar Choice Affects Quality and Production of Winter-Grown Strawberries

Strawberries are one of the American public's favorite fruits. As winter progresses in Nebraska, the supply of affordable strawberries decreases while the demand increases, particularly during the winter holiday season. This presentation will report on experiments involving 13 cultivars of strawberries grown in a double polyethylene greenhouse during Spring 2010 and Fall 2010 through Spring 2011.  The plants were grown on capillary mats covered with white reflective plastic. Heat was supplied by poly tubes located under each of two benches.  The purpose of these experiments was to determine which cultivars would yield the greatest mass and number of berries.  Strawberry cultivars were also tested for their nutraceutical properties and sugar content.  Nutraceutical data from Spring 2010 indicated a tight range in total phenols (1.06–1.84 mg/g) with nine of the cultivars showing significant differences if compared to the very lowest level.  A similar situation occurred with total flavonoids (0.28–0.62 mg/g).  The antioxidant capacity, however, showed a large separation with ‘Strawberry Festival’ and ‘Darselect’ (73–75 uM/g) having significantly more antioxidant capacity than ‘Honeoye’, ‘Albion’ and ‘AC Wendy’ (32–49 uM/g).  Fall–Winter 2010 production peaked during the weeks of December 4 and 11 with ‘Albion’, ‘Chandler’, ‘Darselect’, ‘Clancy’, and Seascape’ producing the greatest total berry mass and numbers.  Production information including sugar content, total berry mas,s and numbers for both years will also be presented.