Combined Effects of Some Mammalian Sex Hormones and Plant Growth Regulators on the Morphological and Biochemical Traits of Strawberry cv. Camarosa at the Harvest Time and Cold Storage

In order to investigate combined effects of foliar application of plant growth regulators (naphthalene acetic acid and benzyl adenine at 50 mg L-1) and mammalian sex hormones (ethinyl estradiol and progesterone at 1.0 mg L-1) on strawberry cv. Camarosa, an experiment was carried out during the growing season, at the harvest time and also during 4 weeks of cold storage (4 °C) in 2018. The results showed that the foliar application of two hormones combined with benzyl adenine, naphthalene acetic acid, progesterone and ethinyl estradiol could be able to improve the growth traits, morphological, biochemical (total soluble solids, titratable acidity, chlorophylls and vitamin C) and antioxidant enzymes activity (peroxidase, catalase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione reductase) of strawberry fruits during the growing season as well as at the harvest time. During 4 weeks of cold storage, the biochemical traits and antioxidant enzymes activity of fruits were changed; in the meantime, the applied treatments significantly maintained fruit quality at the optimum level. Overall, the results revealed that the combined treatment of 1.0 mg L-1 ethinyl estradiol with 1.0 mg L-1 progesterone was the most effective treatment to maintain the quality of strawberry fruit cv. Camarosa during storage.