Strawberry Cultivar Assessment for Organic Production Systems in Florida.

Despite the increasing consumer demand for organic strawberry in recent years, research-based information on strawberry cultivar adaptation to organic cropping systems is limited, especially in Florida. In this study conducted at Citra, FL, four strawberry cultivars, including Sensation^TM Brand ‘Florida 127’, Winterstar^TM ‘FL 05-107’, ‘Florida Radiance’, ‘Strawberry Festival’ were evaluated, in four different organic cropping systems involving three summer cover crop treatments of Crotalaria juncea cv. Tropic Sun, Indigofera hirsuta, and a mixture of Aeschynomene americana, C. ochroleuca, C. juncea cv. AU Golden, and I. hirsuta, as well as a weedy fallow control. The experiment was arranged in a split-plot design with 4 replications, with summer cover crop and strawberry cultivar as the whole plot and subplot factors, respectively. Containerized strawberry transplants were planted on 13 October, 2017. Plant leaf number, canopy size and crown diameter, and leaf chlorophyll content index were measured every four weeks during the production season. Fruits were harvested twice per week. With respect to most of the growth parameters, Winterstar^TM ‘FL 05-107’, Sensation^TM Brand ‘Florida 127’, and ‘Strawberry Festival’ showed better performance than ‘Florida Radiance’. Crotalaria juncea, cover crop mix, and I. hirsuta led to a significant increase in marketable fruit number in December; however, little influence of cover crops was observed during the remaining harvest season. ‘Strawberry Festival’ had higher marketable and total fruit number than Sensation^TM Brand ‘Florida 127’ and ‘Florida Radiance’, but was not significantly different from Winterstar^TM ‘FL 05-107’. Sensation^TM Brand ‘Florida 127’ exhibited the largest fruit size with an average marketable fruit weight of 20.1 g. Winterstar^TM ‘FL 05-107’ had a significantly higher cull fruit weight than the other cultivars because of its susceptibility to Botrytis cinerea and Colletotrichum acutatum. Fruit quality assessment did not indicate significant differences in TA, pH and TSS among treatments.