2019 ASHS Annual Conference

Winter strawberry (Fragaria ×ananassa Duch.) production in Florida is subjected to excessively high temperatures during establishment and cool temperatures in the peak season. To mitigate the negative impact of such seasonal temperature extremes, we developed a new plastic mulch film that has a 51-cm wide, reflective center stripe with black shoulders. The reflective center stripe is a 25-nm-thick layer of aluminum. The effects of this plastic mulch on microenvironments and fruit yields were examined in field experiments over three seasons. Compared to black plastic mulch, the metalized-striped mulch reduced root-zone, canopy, and crown tissue temperatures during establishment, while maintaining the equivalent soil warming during winter months. In addition, spectroradiometer measurements determined that more than 95% of sunlight was reflected by the metalized-striped mulch. Furthermore, the reflected light had a lowered red/far-red ratio, which is the beneficial light quality to stimulate floral initiation in strawberry. The striped mulch increased early-season and total yields consistently by up to 34% and 26%, respectively. Our results demonstrate that the striped mulch can serve as a new technology to improve yields and earliness for winter strawberry producers.