PRODUCTIVE AND QUALITATIVE BEHAVIOUR OF FRESH PLANTS PRODUCED IN SICILIAN NURSERIES

Sicilian strawberry cultivations are increasing their interest: fresh plants, produced in high elevation nurseries located in Spain and Poland have replaced frigo-plants. Strawberry fresh plants propagated in the Sicilian nurseries have been compared to those that came from a nursery located in Poland and set in our experimental farm. The trial was carried out in Marsala (Tp) on the western coast of Sicily under plastic multitunnels. Four cultivars (‘Camarosa’, ‘Candonga’, ‘Tudla’, ‘Naiad’) were studied. The harvest started in January and ended in May. The Sicilian plants were the earliest. Among the cultivars ‘Camarosa’ was the earliest and ‘Candonga’ the latest. The Sicilian plants have given a yield higher than plants imported from Poland. Among the cultivars, ‘Camarosa’ produced more than the others, 798 g/plants. The qualitative characteristics of the fruits (fruit firmness and solid soluble contents) have not been influenced by the nursery areas, but only by the cultivar. Among the cultivars, ‘Candonga’ produced fruits with the highest firmness and solid soluble contents. The results of this trial underlined that it is possible to produce high quality fresh plants in the Sicilian Mountain near the regions of strawberry cultivation.