An appropriate conduction system of the plants that originate the runners has a fundamental importance, in order to favor the amount of produced plants and their quality. On the other hand, through the use of the cold storage, the availability of strawberry runners in the off season periods, makes it possible to produce during the off-season period , so that producers can get better prices for the production. These experiments were conducted in order to compare the conventional strawberry runners' production system with the runner production system in suspended pots, and also to evaluate the cold storage of strawberry runners produced in suspended pots system. It was measured the dry matter and carbohydrates contents in runners and the survival percentage when the runner was transplanted to field production areas. The first experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design, with 3x2 factorial outline (three cultivars: Campinas, Pelican and Guarani; and two runners production systems) with three repetitions of thirty runners each; in the second experiment, it was used the experimental entirely random design, with five strawberry cultivars (Campinas, Dover, Pelican, Sequoia and Sweet Charlie) and nine replicates, in the final experiment. After the selection, the runners were conditioned in polyethylene bags and stored under low temperatures during 120 days (-1 ± 1ºC). The runners produced in the system of suspended pots showed higher amount of total carbohydrates and higher plant survival rate. The results were similar for the three cultivars. Cold storage of strawberry runners produced in the system of suspended pots resulted in lower percentage of seedlings survival.
Fragaria x ananassa Duch; strawberry cultivars; plant production; propagation; nursery
