Effect of Time of Planting, Plant Size, and Nursery-growing Environment on the Performance of ‘Festival’ Strawberry in a Subtropical Environment

Experiments were conducted to determine the effect of time of planting, plant size, and nursery-growing environment on the performance of bare-rooted ‘Festival’ strawberry plants ( Fragaria × ananassa ) at Nambour in southeastern Queensland, Australia, over 3 years. Yields were best with a planting in mid-March (1013 g/plant), with lower yields with a planting in early March (711 g/plant), late March/early April (765 g/plant), mid-April (671 g/plant), or late April/early May (542 g/plant). Plants obtained from Stanthorpe in southern Queensland, a warm-growing environment, were just as productive (695 g/plant) as those from Toolangi in Victoria (710 g/plant) or Kempton in Tasmania (701 g/plant), two cool-growing environments. In contrast, large plants from these nurseries with crown diameters ranging from 10 to 17 mm had 17% higher yields than small plants with crown diameters ranging from 6 to 10 mm (751 vs. 642 g/plant). These results suggest that planting in mid-March is optimal for ‘Festival’ in this environment. Lower yields with an earlier planting reflected the small size of the plants, whereas lower yields with later plantings reflected the shorter growing seasons. It can also be concluded that plant size is more important than nursery-growing environment in determining the productivity of strawberry fields in southeastern Queensland.