Productivity and analysis of morphological characters of experimental strawberry genotypes

ABSTRACT In the world the consumption of strawberries is very appreciated, both in natura or industrialized form. Brazilian production depends on the importation of strawberry seedlings from countries such as Spain, Chile and Argentina, which are cultivars improved in temperate climates and, consequently, not well adapted to the Brazilian tropical conditions. Thus, genetic breeding programs are essential for the generation of more adapted cultivars. The objective was to evaluate and characterize the performance of experimental strawberry genotypes. The statistical design adopted was in randomized blocks, with 12 treatments and 3 replications, the treatments consisting of seven experimental genotypes and five commercial cultivars. We evaluated the total production per plant (g/plant), average weight of fruits per plant (g/fruit), % of commercial fruits per plant, and morphological characterization. The experimental genotypes MFA443, MCA94, MDA23, MDA06 and MCA89 showed the highest strawberry yields per plant, respectively, 285 g, 254 g, 298 g, 295 g and 290 g, with emphasis on the genotype MFA12-443, which also presented the highest average weight of fruits (20.35 g) and percentage of commercial fruits (81%).