Effect of soil cultivation and plant spacing on the growth and cropping of strawberry

Abstract The June-bearing strawberry cultivars ‘Cambridge Favourite’, ‘Hapil’ and ‘Domanil’ and the day-neutral ‘Hecker’ were grown to determine their response to 4 growing systems with pre-planting soil cultivation to 15 or 25 cm depth and with plants grown as spaced individuals or in matted beds, both growing systems having plants initially at the same spacing. In the first cropping year, following sub-soiling and pre-planting soil cultivation to 25 cm, plants of ‘Cambridge Favourite’ and ‘Hecker’, grown in matted beds, produced yield increases of 23 and 26%, respectively, over matted-bed plants at the 15-cm depth. ‘Hapil’ plants at the 15-cm depth yielded 26% more as spaced plants than in matted beds. Spaced plants for ‘Cambridge Favourite’, ‘Domanil’ and ‘Hecker’ at the 25-cm depth yielded more than spaced plants at the 15-cm depth, but the difference was statistically significant for ‘Hecker’ only. In the second cropping year (1985), ‘Cambridge Favourite’ and ‘Hapil’ plants at the 25-cm depth of cultivation yielded 42 and 43% more, respectively, in matted beds than as spaced plants. At the 15-cm depth, ‘Domanil’ yielded 38% more in matted beds than as spaced plants. In 1985, plants grown in matted beds produced more crowns per unit area than spaced individuals. Matted-bed plants of all cultivars except ‘Domanil’ produced more crowns with the deeper soil cultivation.