Winter dawn strawberry cultivar- suitable for commercial cultivation in Assam

The present experiment was conducted at the farmer’s field during the year 2018, 2019 and 2020 to evaluate varietal performance of three strawberry cultivars. A net area of 180 sqm was selected for the experiment and plots were made (3m x 4m each) in a randomized block design with five replications. The sapling of all 3 varieties of strawberry was planted at a spacing of 30cm x 30cm following good agricultural practices to have a good crop. The results revealed that variety Winter dawn produced higher vegetative growth characters like plant height (22.38 cm), number of leaves (25.69), numbers of runners (5.34) and length of runners (65.08 cm) per plant as compared to Sweet Charlie and local farmer’s variety that showed the minimum vegetative growth. Early flowering with more number of flowers (45) and early fruiting with more numbers of fruit per plant (35.61) were observed in variety Winter dawn in comparison to both Sweet charlie and local farmer’s variety. The fruit characters like individual fruit weight (34.57g) was higher in variety Winter dawn that varied significantly with Sweet charlie (20.71g) and Local farmers variety (13.59g). The highest yield per plant (1231.04g) was obtained from Winter dawn where as Sweet Charlie and local farmers variety produced 526.03g and 252.09g per plant, respectively. The cultivation of Winter dawn was more economical as compared to Sweet charly and farmer’s variety in terms of yield performance of among three varieties and Winter dawn can be recommended for commercial cultivation by the farmers to have a good crop.