Influence of Nursery Harvest Date, Cold Storage, and Planting Date on Performance of Winter Planted California Strawberries1

Eight non-everbearing California strawberry cultivars were evaluated under the standard winter planting system (October-November) in comparisons involving differentials in plant harvest and transplanting dates and comparing approximately 30, 15 and 0 days of cold storage conditioning at Santa Ana, a relatively warm-winter south coastal California site. The varieties differed greatly in performance and the results were consistent with that which is known of their varying performance under commercial conditions. ‘Sequoia’ was almost an ideal performer but the fruit lacks firmness. Photoperiod is important in governing the reproductive response under this planting system since the duration of the fruiting period for a given variety was directly associated with how long the plant had grown under short days. However, chilling appeared to be the dominant factor governing acceptable performance in all varieties except ‘Sequoia’. ‘Sequoia’ performed satisfactorily over the entire range of treatments and although it responded to chilling, apparently it has a short rest period. Of the other varieties that are of great economic importance in California, ‘Fresno’ and ‘Shasta’ evidently have relatively long rest periods and cannot be manipulated satisfactorily under the winter planting system whereas ‘Tioga’ is intermediate and responds favorably to manipulation.