Effect of planting density on growth, yield and quality of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) cv. Camarosa

An investigation was carried out at experimental field, Department of Horticulture, Aromatic and Medicinal Plants, Mizoram University to study the effect of planting density on growth, yield and quality of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassaa Duch.) cv. Camarosa. The experiment comprises of a number of planting densities, viz. T-1: 50 x 40 cm, T-2 : 40 x 40 cm, T-3 : 40 x 30 cm, T-4 : 30 x 30 cm, T-5 : 30 x 25 cm, T-6 : 25 x 25 CM, T-7 : 25 x 20 cm and T-8 : 20 x 20 cm. Among the different planting density, the maximum growth in terms of plant height (26.85 cm), E-W (37.83 cm) and N-S spread (39.58 cm), number of leaves (34.45), leaf area (213.92 cm(2)) and crowns/plant (8.11) were observed in the widest spacing, i.e. 50 x 40 cm. This treatment also exhibit superiority in yield attributing characters like berry set percentage (81.17), berry weight (21.73 g), berry diameter (36.06 mm), berry length (43.73 nun), number of berries/plant (21.05) and total biomass (964.64 g). The quality parameters of the fruit like TSS (8.94 degrees Brix), titratable acidity (0.812%), TSS: acid ratio (11.03), total sugars (8.50%), reducing (4.78%) ascorbic acid (67.67/mg/100g) and anthocyanin content (38.53 mg/100g) were also found superior in this spacing. The overall assessment of the present study concluded that a spacing 50 x 40cm is the most efficient planting denstity for improving growth, yield and quality in Camarosa strawberry under Mizoram conditions.