Effect of temperature on dormancy in strawberry

Early in autumn, at the end of September or at the beginning of October, strawberry plants of the cultivars ‘Glasa’ and ‘Tioga’ were transferred from outdoors to separate phytotron glasshouses at constant temperatures of 10° and 14°C. In November a number of these plants were chilled at 3°C for 0 to 4 weeks and subsequently forced; the rest remained at 10° and 14°C until June.The plants kept at 10°C and subsequently chilled and forced, grew faster and more vigorously than those pretreated at 14°C. The 14° plants showed more pronounced growth differences resulting from the length of the chilling treatments than did the 10° plants. Those remaining continuously at 10° developed vigorously from March onwards, while those at 14°C retained their flat appearance into June. These results showed that a continuous temperature as high as 10°C was still able to break dormancy in the strawberry plants, while 14°C was ineffective.