Recent Progress of Strawberry Year-round Production Technology in Japan

抄録

In Japan, more than 90% of strawberries are produced by forcing culture, which involves inducing flowering in autumn by several artificial methods (e.g. chilling, short-day), growing plants under a heated greenhouse to avoid the induction of dormancy and dwarfing, and keeping them in a semi-dormant state to allow continued harvesting. Although the normal harvest period is from late November to June, progress in technological research and the development of forcing has contributed to such long-term harvests. In forcing culture, it is important to understand the dormancy status of the strawberry plants, since controlling dormancy is key to realizing long-term successive harvests between winter and early summer. However, the last two decades have seen increasing demand for a year-round supply of strawberries for confectioners. Recent progress in the research and development of strawberry year-round production technology is reviewed with special reference to the activities of a summer-autumn production research team in the Tohoku region.