Evaluation of Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) Cultivars for Fruit Quality and Biochemical Characters under North-western Plains of India

The present investigation was conducted on “Evaluation of strawberry (Fragaria x anasassa Duch.) cultivars under sub tropical conditions of Punjab”. The objectives of this study was to evaluate ten strawberry cultivars viz. ‘Chandler', ‘Camarosa', ‘Sweet Charlie', ‘Antana', ‘Ofra', ‘Gorella', ‘Brighten', ‘Catispill', ‘Elaranthra' and ‘Belrubi' for their yield and quality characters. The variability among different cultivars was evaluated on fruiting and biochemical characters. The significant variability was found for these characters among various cultivars. Cultivar Camarosa took maximum days to fruit set and maximum days taken up to fruit maturity was recorded in cultivar brighten. Harvesting period was early in Sweet Charlie and late in Camarosa and Chandler. The fruit length and breadth was maximum in Camarosa and Chandler. Number of flowers/plant was maximum in Antana and Catispill while the fruit weight, fruit yield/plant and fruit yield/acre was maximum in Chandler and Camarosa. Maximum TSS and TSS/acid ratio was recorded in Sweet Charlie, highest acidity was found in Gorella and maximum total sugars in Camarosa. Highest vitamin C and anthocyanin was recorded in Ofra and Sweet Charlie, respectively.