I had a great conversation earlier today with a grower concerning the effect to strawberry fruit productivity of removing the emerging flowers in the early winter months of the season. Beautiful field by the way, good strong plants, nice and green.
Many people working in strawberries on the Central Coast believe that removal of the flowers will keep the plant vegetative since it removes the energy burden of flower and fruit production. Subsequently, the thought continues, the plant will be bigger and more productive later on. It's good logic sure, but it isn't standing up to the cold lens of purely objective scientific investigation.
In the investigation I did over two years in four fields total with two of our finest growers, I found that plant size did not vary significantly from the flower removal and fruit production beyond March and April did not vary either. What's more, since fruit production in May, June, July and August was so massive (like I said, good growers!) in the day-neutral strawberry varieties in this study it totally damped out any effect on season total yields that early removal of flowers would have had.
I've included the paper below I wrote in 2023 covering this research project about the effect of early flower removal along with a closer evaluation at the influence of crown size on total plant performance.
It was a good study, have a look.
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