TY - JOUR
T1 - Albion strawberry responds to mulch treatments and low tunnels covered with photoselective films
AU - Orde, Kaitlyn M.
AU - Marini, Rich
AU - Demchak, Kathleen
AU - Sideman, Rebecca
N1 - Funding Information:
Received for publication 24 Mar. 2021. Accepted for publication 2 June 2021. Published online 16 August 2021. We thank Eric Hanson, Nigel Paul, and Edward Durner for providing thoughtful reviews of our manuscript, as well as Matthew Cooper at The Pennsylvania State University for his technical contributions. We thank Eric Hanson, Katherine Hanson, Marvin Pritts, Kim Lewers, and the rest of the TunnelBerries team, especially Nigel Paul of Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom, and Jason Moore of Arid Agritec, Ltd., for supplying the experimental films used for this and other studies during the TunnelBerries project. This work was funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Specialty Crops Research Initiative (award number 2014-51181-22380; TunnelBerries), as well as the New Hampshire Vegetable and Berry Growers’ Association, the Pennsylvania Vegetable Growers Association, and Hatch Appropriations (project number PEN04590, accession number 1006805). Partial funding was provided by the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station. This is Scientific Contribution Number 2878. This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch Project (project number NH00685 and accession number 1019868). R.S. is the corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]. This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Society for Horticultural Science. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - The impact of photoselective films on strawberry plants in a low tunnel system has not been well investigated in the northeastern United States, nor have there been studies looking at the effect of mulch color in a plasticulture system. During two separate years (2016 and 2017), we evaluated ‘Albion’ in an annual system with three ground mulch treatments (black plastic, white-on-black plastic, and no plastic) and under six cover treatments. Five of the cover treatments were low tunnel films that varied in their ultraviolet, photosynthetically active, and near-infrared radiation transmission profiles: Tufflite IVTM (TIV), KoolLite Plus (KLP), Trioplast (TRP), and custom-manufactured UV-transparent (UVT) and UV-blocking (UVO) films. The sixth cover treatment was the traditional open bed environment (no low tunnel). ‘Albion’ produced fruit for 18 to 19 continuous weeks during both years until as late as Thanksgiving (24 Nov.) in 2016. Overall, the average marketable yield was greater in 2017 (486 g/plant) than in 2016 (350 g/plant), and it was greater on black mulch than on no mulch (445 vs. 380 g/plant, respectively); white mulch was intermediate (419 g/plant) (P # 0.05). There was not a significant increase in marketable yield under low tunnels compared with open beds. The average fruit mass was greater under KLP and UVO than open beds (TIV and UVT were intermediate), and greater on beds with no mulch than black mulch (white mulch was intermediate). Across cover treatments, plants on black mulch produced more runners than plants on white or no mulch, and the black mulch/open bed treatment generated the greatest number of runners in both years, more than double most other treatments in 2016. The present study demonstrates that mulch selection is important for maximizing the yield of ‘Albion’ in the Northeast region, and that both mulch and cover impact runnering and fruit size. For plant propagators producing ‘Albion’ tips in a field environment, the results of this study suggest they are likely to maximize runner quantity by cultivating plants on black mulch without low tunnel cover.
AB - The impact of photoselective films on strawberry plants in a low tunnel system has not been well investigated in the northeastern United States, nor have there been studies looking at the effect of mulch color in a plasticulture system. During two separate years (2016 and 2017), we evaluated ‘Albion’ in an annual system with three ground mulch treatments (black plastic, white-on-black plastic, and no plastic) and under six cover treatments. Five of the cover treatments were low tunnel films that varied in their ultraviolet, photosynthetically active, and near-infrared radiation transmission profiles: Tufflite IVTM (TIV), KoolLite Plus (KLP), Trioplast (TRP), and custom-manufactured UV-transparent (UVT) and UV-blocking (UVO) films. The sixth cover treatment was the traditional open bed environment (no low tunnel). ‘Albion’ produced fruit for 18 to 19 continuous weeks during both years until as late as Thanksgiving (24 Nov.) in 2016. Overall, the average marketable yield was greater in 2017 (486 g/plant) than in 2016 (350 g/plant), and it was greater on black mulch than on no mulch (445 vs. 380 g/plant, respectively); white mulch was intermediate (419 g/plant) (P # 0.05). There was not a significant increase in marketable yield under low tunnels compared with open beds. The average fruit mass was greater under KLP and UVO than open beds (TIV and UVT were intermediate), and greater on beds with no mulch than black mulch (white mulch was intermediate). Across cover treatments, plants on black mulch produced more runners than plants on white or no mulch, and the black mulch/open bed treatment generated the greatest number of runners in both years, more than double most other treatments in 2016. The present study demonstrates that mulch selection is important for maximizing the yield of ‘Albion’ in the Northeast region, and that both mulch and cover impact runnering and fruit size. For plant propagators producing ‘Albion’ tips in a field environment, the results of this study suggest they are likely to maximize runner quantity by cultivating plants on black mulch without low tunnel cover.
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U2 - 10.21273/HORTSCI15886-21
DO - 10.21273/HORTSCI15886-21
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85114869004
SN - 0018-5345
VL - 59
SP - 1005
EP - 1014
JO - HortScience
JF - HortScience
IS - 6
ER -