S06 - Session P4 - The influence of greenhouse climatic conditions on 13 strawberries varieties in quantitative and qualitative traits

Authors: Silvia Locatelli, Carlo Nicoletto *, Paolo Sambo

Agriculture production interacts with climate change (CC) in double ways. On one hand, it contributes to CC with greenhouse gases emitted from agriculture fields, and on the other hand, it suffers the effect of CC that reduce crops production and yield inter-annual stability. In this context, a key role can be played by greenhouse productions. Indeed, they avoid or reduce the negative effects of extreme meteorologic events on crops, better programming at the same time the production cycles. However, the climate changed conditions (e.g. solar radiation, air temperatures, relative humidity) also determine changed conditions inside the greenhouses. For these reasons, monitoring of climatic conditions inside the greenhouses and their effects on crops is needed. This study reports the results of autumn and spring monitoring campaigns carried out to evaluate climatic conditions inside a low-tech greenhouse where 13 strawberry varieties were cultivated. The specific response of each variety at the climatic conditions was also monitored. Considering the phenological aspects, the flowering stage was reached with different growing degree days (GDD) in one variety compared to the other ones. The nutritional status, indirectly evaluated using the SPAD index, was different among the varieties. High variability was shown by the compared varieties considering the quantitative traits. The monitoring of temperatures made it possible to build a three-dimensional thermal model of the cultivation structure. This tool, in combination with the agronomic variables recorded for the crop, made it possible to identify a predictive map of the production performance of the strawberry. This result makes it possible to improve crop management skills by increasing productivity, quality and crop planning.