YIELD AND FRUIT QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF DAY-NEUTRAL STRAWBERRY CULTIVARS AT THE END OF THE WORLD (USHUAIA, ARGENTINA)

Strawberry production is one of the most promising agricultural activities in Ushuaia (The End of the World, 54°48’S), Tierra del Fuego, Argentina; mainly focused on day-neutral cultivars. The main goal of this research was to assess yield as well as fruit quality of day-neutral strawberry cultivars grown “at the end of the world”. Two trials were carried out on September 2004 at the experimental field of CADIC (Ushuaia). The first one, proved frigo plants of ‘Aromas’, ‘Fern’, ‘Selva’ and ‘Seascape’ from a Neuquén nursery (38°57’S). The second one, proved frigo plants of ‘Aromas’, ‘Selva’, ‘Cegnidarem’, ‘Colima’, ‘Diamante’, ‘Seascape’ and ‘Whitney’ from a Mendoza nursery (33°30’S). The trials were performed during two consecutive years. Planting was done on raised beds covered with plastic mulch film (PM), under polyethylene (LDT, 150 µ) low tunnels. After harvest, fruit quality (size, color, soluble solids content, firmness, titratable acidity and dry weight) was analyzed. ‘Colima’ was the most productive and had the best quality, showing the higher soluble solids:acidity ratio. ‘Seascape’ and ‘Selva’ also showed excellent performance. Among other attributes, ‘Seascape’ had the best color. Fruit size and other fruit quality attributes were superior to those observed in other regions of Argentina.