DETERMINATION OF THE GROWTH-POTENTIAL OF STRAWBERRY PLANTS (FRAGARIA X ANANASSA-DUCH) BY MORPHOLOGICAL AND NUCLEOTIDE MEASUREMENTS IN RELATION TO CHILLING

Early strawberry fruit production requires that non-dormant strawberry plants be covered during winter. Two methods were used to study the b reaking of dormancy of Elsanta strawberry plants following chilling at temperatures below 80 degrees C. First, a morphological test using th e petiole lengths of plants transferred from a nursery to a growth cha mber was used. Second, the nucleotide contents before and after incuba tion of samples in an adenosine solution were measured by bioluminesce nce. The results show that these two methods can reveal changes in the growth potential of strawberry plants, and, therefore, the release fr om dormancy.