Yield Comparison and Qualitative Characteristics of Commercial Cultivars of Strawberry in Southern Parts of Fars Province in order to Off-Season Production

Southern parts of Fars province, with mild autumn and winter, provides suitable conditions for protected cultivation of various crops such as strawberry. Crop production in greenhous has some advantages such as reducing energy consumption, out off-season production and early ripening fruits. To evaluate the yield and quality of 12 strawberry cultivars, an experiment was carried out in two successive years 2015 and 2016 at the Gerash region in Larestan. For this purpose, rooted strawberry daughter plants of cultivars Paros, Queen Elisa, Selva, Gaviota, Camarosa, Aromas, Kurdestan, Fresno, Missionary, Pajaro, Ventana, and Chandler were provided from Kurdistan Province and cultured in the Mid-autumn. The results showed that significant differences observed in number of flowers and inflorescences per plant, flowering and fruiting periods, fruit weight and total yield of cultivars. Among the studied cultivars, Paros produced the highest average fruit weight (23 g) and total yield (230 g per plant) and was the best cultivar. In general, Paros, Queen Elisa, Selva and Gaviota had the longest flowering and fruiting periods. In addition, in both years according to quantitative and qualitative traits, Paros had a good performance.