Abstract
BACKGROUND: Fluctuations in environmental conditions within fields and crop plant performance can greatly affect production and quality standards. These factors are particularly relevant for producers, who require sustained optimal production to profit from small margins. Fluctuations might be exacerbated at the end of the crop season, where neither of the aforementioned factors are optimal. In the present integrated study, we assess strawberries' nutritional quality and the impact of harvest timing, tunnel conditions and inter-individual variability in a Mediterranean production tunnel divided into blocks, where two harvests were performed 3 weeks apart. In addition, the effects of sprayed melatonin at the end of productive season were also evaluated. RESULTS: End-season harvesting negatively impacted fruit hydration, antioxidant capacity and ripening-related hormones in strawberry fruits. Additionally, tunnel distribution influenced fruit nutritional quality, with light radiation being the main variable factor disturbing antioxidant contents. Nutrients exhibited high inter-individual plant variability, accounting for 20% variation, and were strongly correlated with fruit hydration and ripening-related phytohormones. Finally, melatonin applications affected neither fruit production, nor nutritional parameters, for which the effects were masked by the intrinsic strawberry variability. Overall, the results underline the limitations of this type of application for field implementation. CONCLUSION: Fruit quality variation in strawberry fields is explained by environmental and inter-individual variability. Likewise, the implementation of regulatory molecules such as melatonin in field applications relies on crop homogeneity and might have limited applicability in heterogeneous productive systems. Consequently, identifying and reducing microclimate variability in productive fields is paramount for advancing agricultural practices to uphold unwavering standards on fruit quality. © 2024 The Author(s). Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.
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Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
End-season harvesting negatively affected fruit hydration, antioxidant capacity and ripening-related hormones in strawberry fruits.
- Taxon
- strawberry
_single2.jpg?width=60)
Fragaria ×ananassae0 - Treatment
- End-season harvestinge0
- Outcome
- fruit hydration, antioxidant capacity and ripening-related hormonese0
- Direction
- negatively impactede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
_single2.jpg?width=500)
Verbatim
e0“End-season harvesting negatively impacted fruit hydration, antioxidant capacity and ripening-related hormones in strawberry fruits”
Claim · model-written summary
Tunnel distribution influenced strawberry fruit nutritional quality.
- Taxon
- strawberryFragaria ×ananassat0
- Treatment
- tunnel distributione0
- Outcome
- fruit nutritional qualitye0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“tunnel distribution influenced fruit nutritional quality”
t0“strawberry”
Claim · model-written summary
Light radiation was the main variable factor disturbing antioxidant contents in strawberry fruit across the tunnel.
- Taxon
- strawberryFragaria ×ananassat0
- Treatment
- light radiatione0
- Outcome
- antioxidant contentse0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“light radiation being the main variable factor disturbing antioxidant contents”
t0“strawberry”
Claim · model-written summary
Nutrients in strawberry showed high inter-individual plant variability, accounting for 20% of variation.
- Taxon
- strawberryFragaria ×ananassat0
- Outcome
- inter-individual plant variabilitye0
- Value
- 20%e0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Nutrients exhibited high inter-individual plant variability, accounting for 20% variation”
t0“strawberry”
Claim · model-written summary
Strawberry nutrient levels were strongly correlated with fruit hydration and ripening-related phytohormones.
- Taxon
- strawberryFragaria ×ananassat0
- Compound
- ripening-related phytohormonese0
- Outcome
- Nutrientse0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Nutrients exhibited high inter-individual plant variability, accounting for 20% variation, and were strongly correlated with fruit hydration and ripening-related phytohormones”
t0“strawberry”
Claim · model-written summary
Melatonin applications affected neither fruit production nor nutritional parameters of strawberry.
- Taxon
- strawberryFragaria ×ananassat0
- Treatment
- melatonin applicationse0
- Outcome
- fruit production, nor nutritional parameterse0
- Direction
- affected neithere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“melatonin applications affected neither fruit production, nor nutritional parameters”
t0“strawberry”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors conclude that fruit quality variation in strawberry fields is explained by environmental and inter-individual variability.
- Taxon
- strawberryFragaria ×ananassae0
- Outcome
- Fruit quality variatione0
- Qualifier
- environmental and inter-individual variabilitye0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Fruit quality variation in strawberry fields is explained by environmental and inter-individual variability”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors recommend identifying and reducing microclimate variability in productive strawberry fields.
- Taxon
- strawberryFragaria ×ananassat0
- Outcome
- identifying and reducing microclimate variabilitye0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“identifying and reducing microclimate variability in productive fields is paramount”
t0“strawberry”
The same questions in other papers
melatonin · yield · Fragaria x ananassa (strawberry)Positive and negative results
3 in the opposite direction
- positive
- positive
- positive
Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.