Effect of Short Duration Chilling on the Performance of Strawberry

Five varieties of strawberry, namely, Albriton, Dilpasand, Fresno, Early Cambridge and Jeolikote were used for the present experiment where the runners were exposed to three weeks of chilling at 0 ± 1°C prior to planting. In the varieties Dilpasand, Early Cambridge and Jeolikote the treatment resulted in increased plant vigour particularly higher production of runners. However, the effect on flowering and fruiting was not favourable. In the varieties Albriton and Fresno chilling treatment did not have positive influence on vegetative vigour suggesting that the chilling requirement of these two varieties are higher. Experiment has indicated that chilling treatment can be used in some varieties for faster multiplication of plants and that the actual chilling requirement is to be standardised for different varieties, since interclonal differences have been observed with regard to response to chilling.