Analysis and evaluation of strawberry growth, photosynthetic characteristics, biomass yield and quality in an artificial closed ecosystem

- Two strawberry cultivars 'Benihoppe'(Fragaria × ananassa Duch. 'Benihoppe') and 'Frandy'(Fragaria × ananassa Duch. 'Frandy') were cultivated under high CO2 concentration in an artificial closed ecosystem, the cultivation technologies for strawberry with inorganic matrix as growing media and water supplied by the negative pressure of porous tubes established.
- The growth status and quality indicators were analyzed and a suitable strawberry cultivar for BLSS was screened out by actual planting in simulated BLSS environment.

Plant cultivation plays an important part in deep space manned mission, and the techniques could be used in ground facility agriculture. The screening of strawberry cultivars and a complete cultivation technique for strawberry are necessary in space life support system. In this work, two strawberry cultivars 'Benihoppe' and 'Frandy' were cultivated under high CO2 concentration in a closed ecosystem to establish key techniques for strawberry planting for space life support. The main objective of the study is to analyze and evaluate of growth, photosynthetic characteristics, biomass yield and quality of strawberry in a closed ecosystem. Our result showed that the two strawberry cultivars grew well during the 105-day-closed experiment, providing 37.4 g fresh berries every day for the crew in the closed system. The yield, harvest index and sugar content of 'Frandy' were comparatively higher than those of 'Benihoppe', among which the daily dietary allowance of trace elements and amino acids (18 kinds) in the fruits stood out. This study provided experimental support for the cultivation techniques of berry plants both for life support system and ground facility agriculture, and afforded a new perspective and sufficient information about strawberry cultivation and selection under the special condition of closed ecosystem.