Evaluating strawberry breeding selections for postharvest fruit decay

Fruit from the annual replicated yield assessments for the USDA-ARS strawberry (Fragaria ×ananassa Duchesne ex Rozier) breeding program at Beltsville, MD, 2007 and 2008, were evaluated for postharvest decay development after storage at 5 °C. Generalized linear genotype × year mixed model analysis of covariance with overdispersed binomial distribution, logit link function, and Laplace optimization method was used to determine the relationships between postharvest proportion decay and storage period (SP), season’s harvest number (HN), and genotype-specific harvest number through the season; conditioned on the confounding of harvest with SP. To determine if limiting analyses to replicates (plot × harvest combinations) with a minimum number of berries would increase statistical precision, concurrent analyses were conducted using data from replicates with more than: zero, three, and six berries. Limiting data to genotypes for which more than three or more than six berries could be evaluated, resulted in loss of data and reduced statistical power. Within the range of SP observed, 13–19 days, consistency among genotypes of the linear relationship between SP and logit postharvest proportion decay, unless strongly influenced by a confounded harvest effect, indicated all SP in the range tested provided equivalent ability to discern genotypes. The significant genotype × HN interaction effect indicated maximizing the number of harvests was preferable to limiting to a few “informative” harvests. The significant genotype × year interaction effect indicated the decision to release a genotype as a cultivar will demand multiple years of evaluation. Making determinations each year to discard genotypes or use them as parents for postharvest quality was best facilitated by the simple process of calculating arithmetic genotypic means for each harvest date separately, charting the results, and using the charts to visually assess genotypic performance trends across harvests.