Erwerbs-Obstbau, vol.65, no.4, pp.1027-1033, 2023 (SCI-Expanded)
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Der/die Autor(en), exklusiv lizenziert an Springer-Verlag GmbH Deutschland, ein Teil von Springer Nature.Strawberry, which is the most important member of the berry group, is sensitive to low temperature and frost. The damage through frost and low temperature needs to be alleviated during strawberry cultivation. In the current experiment, we evaluated the effects of different cover materials and exogenous brassinosteroid (BR) application on yield and quality of strawberry in the open field. In this study, low tunnels were covered with two different materials, polyethylene and frost cover during winter, and external BR applications were compared in the cultivation of ‘Albion’ and ‘Sweet Ann’ cultivars. For this purpose, yield and quality parameters (yield per plant, average fruit weight, vitamin C content), plant growth measurements (fresh and dry weight, stem diameter, leaf area), and some biochemical responses (proline, malondialdehyde [MDA], total phenolic content) were determined. In the first year of the experiment, the highest yield was obtained from the frost cover (212.02 g/plant) in the ‘Sweet Ann’ cultivar. In the second year, the highest yield was obtained from BR application (183.20 g/plant) in the ‘Albion’ cultivar and from frost cover application (292.17 g/plant) in the ‘Sweet Ann’ cultivar. The highest proline content was found in BR applications (‘Albion’ 0.011 µmol/g and ‘Sweet Ann’ 0.013 µmol/g) in both cultivars in the second year. Considering MDA content, it was seen that the lowest cell damage was obtained from BR applications (‘Albion’ 1.538 µmol/g and ‘Sweet Ann’ 1.030 µmol/g).