Abstract

The strawberry varieties Talisman and Redgauntlet initiated inflorescences in two phases, Phase 1 in summer and Phase 2 in autumn. Defoliation in August (after completion of Phase 1) frequently increased the final autumn level of inflorescence initiation and promoted the emergence in autumn of the inflorescences formed in the summer. Sometimes in these varieties the rate of Phase 2 initiation decreased immediately after defoliation but later increased sufficiently to give a total level of initiation surpassing that in the intact (non- defoliated) plants.
Phase 1 initiation was observed only rarely in Cambridge Favourite and never in Royal Sovereign. In these varieties too, defoliation immediately reduced the rate of Phase 2 initiation, but any increase which subsequently occurred was usually insufficient to raise the final level in the defoliated plants to that in the intact plants.
The behaviour of the variety Cambridge Vigour was generally intermediate between that of Redgauntlet and Talisman on the one hand and that of Cambridge Favourite and Royal Sovereign on the other.