Response of off-season strawberries (Fragaria sp.) production under the effects of paclobutrazol and drought stress

Abstract

Strawberry (Fragaria sp.) is a fruit crop harvested seasonally with the peak season from August to November while the off-season harvest is January to June with limited harvest. The purpose of this study was to find the concentration of paclobutrazol and the level of drought stress for off-season strawberry production. This research conducted on April to July 2023. The experiment used a factorial Randomized Block Design consisting of 2 factors and 3 replications with 16 treatment combinations. The first factor was paclobutrazol consisting of four levels, namely P0 = control, P1 = 10,000 ppm, P2 = 20,000 ppm and P3 = 30,000 ppm and the second factor was the level of drought stress consisting of four levels i.e. C0 = 100% field capacity, C1 = 80% field capacity, C2 = 60% field capacity and C3 = 40% field capacity. The results showed that paclobutrazol accelerated flowering time, increased fruit set, leaf relative water content, root length, chlorophyll content, but decreased the number of fruits formed, harvested fruits, fruit diameter, harvested fruit weight, weight per fruit, root oven dry weight, percentage of fallen fruits and total soluble solids. Drought stress level increased leaf relative water content, root length, root oven dry weight, percentage of fallen fruit, percentage of fruit set, but decreased number of flowers formed, fruits harvested, weight of fruits harvested, weight per fruit, fruit diameter, total soluble solids, chlorophyll content and delayed flowering time.