Effect of planting time and genotypes growth, yield and quality of strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.)

• We studied the effect of planting time on selected strawberry cultivars.
• The performance of strawberry under different planting time were studied.
• Irrespective of germplasm 01 October planting was found to be suitable.
• Among the studied cultivar Sweet Charlie was excellent for early cultivation.
• Festival and Camarosa considered as late planting.

The experiment was conducted on strawberry having four planting time one month interval from 01 September to 01 December and five promising strawberry genotypes viz. Sweet Charlie, Festival, Camarosa, FA 008 and BARI strawberry-1 for observing their effects on growth, yield and quality under sub tropical climatic conditions of Bangladesh during the winter seasons of 2009–2010 and 2010–2011. The study revealed that irrespective of planting dates ‘Camarosa’ had the maximum growth being at par with FA008 but it was not reflected in yield and yield attributes because of higher plant mortality% in ‘Camarosa’ and FA 008. Plant mortality% was found lower in FA 008 and BARI Strawberry-1 than Camarosa, Festival and Sweet Charlie irrespective of planting time. The genotype ‘Camarosa’ planted on September exhibited wider harvest duration (96.00 days) followed by ‘Festival’ (93.67 days) planted on the same date. The maximum number of fruits plant−1 was obtained in Sweet Charlie (39.00) of October planting, while plants of BARI Strawberry-1 of December planting produced only 12 fruits. Plants of ‘Festival’ of October planting gave the heaviest fruit (17.78 g) closely followed by those of ‘Sweet Charlie’ and ‘Camarosa’ planted on the same date. On the other hand, plants of FA 008 and BARI Strawberry-1 of December planting gave the lightest fruit. Sweet Charlie planted on 01 October performed well and produced the highest yield (667.22 g plant−1), while BARI Strawberry-1 of December planting produced the lowest yield (79.71 g plant−1). Fruits of early planted plants contained more TSS and ascorbic acid than late planted plants.