Response of garden strawberry cultivars to damage by the two-spotted spider mite

Garden strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) is an important commercial berry crop. Its productivity depends on the adaptive potential of the cultivar and is limited by the degree of exposure to unfavorable abiotic and biotic factors characteristic of a particular climatic zone. The present work studies the resistance of garden strawberry cultivars with diff erent ripening periods to damage by the two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae Koch.) when grown under simulated conditions of a climatic chamber. Cultivars were observed to respond differently to simulated extreme growing conditions such as simulate d ground frost, waterlogged soil, or soil moisture defi cit combined with damage from mite spread and exposure. The cultivars Festivalnaya, Solovushka, Solnechnaya Polyanka were the least resistant to the impact of a complex of abiotic and biotic factors. For them, the extent of mite damage was up to 100 %. Moreover, a signifi cant number of dead plants were observed. The Bereginya, Nashe Podmoskovye, and Alpha cultivars are able to adapt to adverse environmental conditions. Also, they are more resistant to damage by the two-spotted spider mite.