Postharvest quality of strawberry produced during two consecutive seasons

Maintaining plants in the field for two consecutive crop cycles is one of the latest techniques used by strawberry growers to reduce production costs. The goal of this research was to evaluate the postharvest fruit quality of six strawberry cultivars produced for two consecutive seasons with the same plants. They were planted from May to July 2010 under low-tunnel and fruits were evaluated in two growing seasons (season 1= January, February, and March 2011 and season 2= August, September, and October 2011), totaling three harvests of each cultivar in each year season. Fruits were picked up randomly among 500 plants of each cultivar, organized into five replications of five fruits and kept for three days before analysis under refrigeration (average temperature of 4 C). Variables analyzed were: soluble solids content, titratable acidity, soluble solids content/ titratable acidity, flesh firmness, C vitamin content, sensory characteristics (sweetness, flavor, acidity, aroma, shape and flesh firmness), and mineral composition (Ca, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Cu and Zn). 'Albion', ' Monterey' and 'San Andreas' showed good physical, chemical and sensory characteristics in both seasons. In general, fruits produced during the season 1 showed better physical, chemical and sensory characteristics than fruits produced in season 2. 'Palomar' and 'Portola' were better than the other cultivars concerning C vitamin content in both seasons. 'Palomar' showed higher potassium, calcium, magnesium, manganese and zinc levels, and ' Portola' showed higher calcium and iron levels.