LOCALIZED AIRFLOW AND SUPPLEMENTAL LIGHT QUALITY IMPACT ON STRAWBERRY MICROCLIMATE, GROWTH, AND YIELD IN CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENTS
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In 2020, the United States produced about 2.56 billion USD in wholesale farmgate value of strawberries. The U.S. strawberry industry is experiencing challenges that include but are not limited to increased consumer demand for berries, climate change-induced weather variability, high pesticide use, labor and immigration policies, and land availability in some regional areas. Production in controlled environment agriculture (CEA) may mitigate these challenges. CEA environments can have high canopy densities, which limit airflow and possibly limit photosynthesis and lead to climate variability in a greenhouse. However, there is no previous literature on strawberry airflow recommendations. The objective of the first chapter was to quantify the effects of delivering localized upward airflow for greenhouse strawberries using perforated poly tubes. There were 4 upward airflow treatments: no added airflow (control), and ~0.51, ~1.02, and ~1.54 m/s provided by the experiment were arranged as a randomized complete block design (with three replicates over time) with five troughs (each consisting of 4 ‘Florida Beauty’ cultivar strawberry plants in troughs in a custom soilless substrate. Data were collected over an 8-week treatment period on marketable fruit mass, total fruit mass, and number. Within each treatment, microclimate data were collected on air temperature, relative humidity, and PAR. In the chapter 1 experiment, supplemental airflow treatments did not significantly impact berry yields. However, minor improvements to the stability of relative humidity within the crop canopy were observed. The objective of the second experiment chapter was to quantify the effects of delivering a consistent daily light integral (DLI) using supplemental light-emitting diode (LED) lighting with dimming capability vs. conventional supplemental high-pressure sodium (HPS) lighting on strawberry yield and fruit quality. A 3-month experiment was conducted in which ‘Albion’ and ‘Cabrillo’ day-neutral strawberry cultivars received two different lighting treatments (HPS and LED) in a climate-controlled glass greenhouse. Both treatments also concurrently used a revised version of the Cornell University-developed lighting algorithm (LASSI) that improves DLI consistency. Due to the nature of the experiment each treatment was in a separate greenhouse section, and it was not able to be replicated so the results may not be generalizable. The LED lighting treatment resulted in significantly greater fresh fruit biomass with generally equal fruit quality (Brix and titratable acidity) as the control treatment. By the end of the three-month (13-week) treatment period, the dimmable LED lighting treatment ‘Cabrillo’ plants averaged the greatest yield out of all treatments and cultivars with approximately 1301 grams of cumulative total fresh fruit biomass produced per plant and about 101.3% greater fresh fruit biomass per plant than the ‘Cabrillo’ HPS treatment. Furthermore, the ‘Albion’ LED treatment had about 74.4% greater fresh fruit biomass per plant than ‘Albion’ HPS by the end of the experiment.
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Peck, Mason