Testing three strawberry cultivars for reduced water demand in the mid-Adriatic area

Strawberry cultivation systems generally requires high amounts of water supply, especially in some phases of the cultivation cycle. New strawberry cultivars with lower water demand are now requested to reduce input in the cultivation process, to reduce costs, to save this precious resource and increase adaptability to changing climatic conditions. Yield and fruit quality of different strawberry cultivars (‘Cristina’, ‘Romina’, and ‘Sibilla’) grown at reduced water restitution (80 and 60%) were compared with the full (100%) restitution of water lost from restart of growth to fruit ripening in order to study the genotype effect on water demand. To monitor the response to these treatments, vegetative (n° of crown plants^‑1, n° and size of leaves, plant height, n° floral axis), productive (ripening period, average weight of the fruit, commercial and total production, unmarketable production), and qualitative (sugar content, titratable acidity, fruit color and firmness) parameters were detected. The water reduction affected in different manner the three cultivars, with ‘Cristina’ and ‘Romina’ resulting the most adaptable to these resilient conditions. In particular, with 80% water restitution, ‘Cristina’ and ‘Romina’ did not show negative effects on plant development, while ‘Sibilla’ showed plant wilting and reduced plant development and yield. Fruit quality of the three cultivars was not altered by water reduction, except for the sugar content, that increased at decreasing amounts of water restitution. The three cultivars highly suffered the reduction at 60% of water restitution. The results confirm the importance of genotype rusticity for reducing water use in strawberry cultivation systems. ‘Cristina’ and ‘Romina’ are able to maintain regular plant development, yield and fruit quality at 80% of water restitution. At a further reduction (60%) at a lower yield correspond an increased fruit quality. The research will continue to identify other new cultivars even with higher resilience to water limitation.