Micropropagated Strawberry Mother Plants for High Quality Frigo and Plug Plants Nursery Production

Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) nursery production is facing increasing phytosanitary problems due to the globalization of nursery plant distribution, the increased requirement of new type of plants (e.g., bare roots and plug plants) and the demand of the fast propagation of new cultivars. Well-defined micropropagation and nursery production protocols can ensure a fast production of large quantities of strawberry plants with high genetic and sanitary quality. The efficiency of micropropagated strawberry mother plants to produce in vivo frigo plants, from open field nursery, and fresh plugs plants, from soilless cultivation, has been already demonstrated. Frigo plants, from micropropagated mother plants, were tested for two nursery production and grower cultivations cycles. Results proved high plant homogeneity both in plant nursery and-fruit production. The same approach has been tested to produce plug plants from soilless cultivation of mother plants. To verify the efficiency of this approach, the response of different genotypes, the mother plants transplant period in plastic pots and bags at different plant density, has been tested. All genotypes (3 cultivars and 3 breeding selections) yielded a high quantity of runners at defined planting period and plant density. The derived plug plants resulted of high physiological and phytosanitary quality when transferred to the field.