Effect of Root Zone Cooling on the Growth and Development of Strawberry (<i>Fragaria x ananassa</i>) in a Tropical Climate
Listed in
This article is not in any list yet, why not save it to one of your lists.Abstract
Strawberry production in tropical and subtropical climates has been adversely affected by rising temperatures and reduced cooling periods, leading to a decrease in flower induction and overall yield. This experiment aimed to investigate the effects of root zone cooling on short-day strawberry plants cultivated under evaporative greenhouse conditions. The cooling methods employed included of four root zone cooling treatments: normal water dripping (NWD), cold-water (10 °C) dripping (CWD), cold-water dripping plus cold-water pipe (CWD+CWP), and normal water dripping plus cold-water pipe (NWD+CWP) embedded within the growing media. The results indicated that the CWD+CWP treatment being particularly effective, reducing RZT by approximately 2 °C compared to other treatments. Thereby promoting both vegetative and reproductive growth, particularly in the ‘Akihime’ strawberry. In the absence of root zone cooling, ‘Akihime’ and ‘Pharachatan 88’ were still capable of producing flowers and yield, whereas ‘Pharachatan 80’ was no. In addition, ‘Pharachatan 80’ was affected by CWD+CWP which shown highest of total phenolic compound, total anthocyanin and total vitamin C among all treatments. It can be concluded that reducing the root zone temperature through the combined use of cold water dripping embedded cold-water pipe in the growing media can enhance the growth and development of short-day strawberry plants cultivated under evaporative greenhouse conditions in tropical climate.