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Seminar: Michael Palmer: Impact of Daughter Plant Size on Subsequent Yield and of Early Chill Hours on Flowering of Strawberry
October 23, 2023 | 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Date: Monday, October 23, 2023
Time: 3:00 pm
Speaker: Michael Palmer, PhD Introduction Seminar
Title: Impact of Daughter Plant Size on Subsequent Yield and of Early Chill Hours on Flowering of Strawberry
Host: Dr. Mark Hoffmann
Location: 121 Kilgore / Hybrid
Join Zoom Meeting: https://ncsu.zoom.us/j/99728388661?pwd=cm1qbUZWdkZSRDZTTXVFSWt5ZGdqZz09
Meeting ID: 997 2838 8661
Passcode: 489742
Abstract:
Soilless and some raised bed strawberry production systems begin with pre-rooted strawberry plants in substrate. These rooted plants begin as daughter plants and are produced along stolons from mature strawberry (mother) plants. Rooted plants most commonly come as 50 cc plug plants or 250 cc tray plants. The objectives of this PhD research are to (1) determine the impact of initial daughter plant size on yield in a field production system, (2) evaluate the impact of supplemental chilling hours during rooting on early flower development of 250 cc tray plants (‘Albion’, ‘Monterey’, ‘Sensation’, ‘Chandler’), (3) evaluate the impact of photoperiod on flower induction during rooting of 250 cc strawberry tray plants, and (4) identify tissue-specific gene expression levels under temperature and/or photoperiodic conditions evaluated in Objectives 2/3. The first study hypothesizes that these differences in size before and after rooting will lead to differences in yield in a North Carolina field production system (Obj. 1). We further hypothesize that young daughter plants can be conditioned for optimal flowering using temperature and photoperiod, leading to changes in gene expression in affected tissue (Obj. 2-4). We established and used ‘flower mapping’ protocols to evaluate stages of early flowering in short-day (‘Chandler’, ‘Sensation’) and long-day (‘Albion’, ‘Monterey’) 250 cc tray plants after low temperature (chill) treatments (0 hours and 450 hours). Preliminary results show significant impact of chilling hours on flower truss and floral development stage in short-day strawberry plants, while strawberry daughter plant size does not seem to have an impact on subsequent yield. Currently we are continuing the temperature experiments and repeating the daughter plant size experiment. We further plan to start the photoperiod experiment and identify tissue for subsequent RNA sequencing in 2024/25.