When is the latest ripening time for strawberries?

The strawberry is a perennial herbaceous plant of the genus Fragaria in the family Rosaceae, also known as the pineapple strawberry. It originated in South America and is cultivated throughout our country. Its nutritional value is very high, and it is rich in vitamin C. It has the effects of moistening the lungs and promoting fluid production, strengthening the spleen and harmonizing the stomach, promoting diuresis and reducing swelling, and relieving fever and summer heat. Now let us take a look together at when strawberries ripen!

When do strawberries ripen?

Strawberries are widely cultivated around the world, with more than 2000 varieties. They love light, prefer moisture, fear waterlogging, and are not drought-tolerant. They prefer fertile, well-aerated sandy loam soil. When the spring temperature rises above 5 degrees, the plants begin to sprout, and the optimum growth temperature is 20-26 degrees. In the Jiangsu region, they sprout in late February, bloom in early to mid-April, and the fruit ripens in mid to late May. Flower bud differentiation occurs when the temperature is below 17 degrees and under short-day conditions of 10-12 hours, and there is a short period of dormancy in winter. However, strawberries usually come onto the market around February to March. In fact, every year from December to January of the following year is the peak season for picking strawberries, but some people say that strawberries during this period are basically ripened artificially, so the true ripening time for strawberries is April to May.

How are strawberries ripened artificially?

1. Irregular ripening: Irregular ripening of strawberries refers to strawberries ripened using the ripening agent ethylene. Those strawberries with hollow centers, large and irregular shapes are generally caused by excessive ripening agent.

2. Normal ripening: Strawberries were the earliest “model” of off-season fruit to adopt new technology with great success. Off-season growth uses the new technology of “protected cultivation”, using windbreaks, sun-fed beds, hotbeds, plastic greenhouses, conservatories, and other cold-proof and heat-preserving facilities in the cold winter and spring seasons to achieve early ripening, high yield, and an extended supply period. The nutritional components of strawberries produced in this way are no lower than those of open-field cultivated strawberries.

Common cultivated strawberry varieties

1. Kinuama strawberry: The Kinuama strawberry has light red, gorgeous fruit with a fragrant aroma. It is extremely sweet, with a sugar content as high as 12-18% (ordinary strawberries are 7-12%). It is harvested from December to February of the following year, can bear fruit continuously for 6 months, and can be stored naturally for 7-10 days. Fruit harvested after March can be stored for 4-7 days.

2. Toyonoka strawberry: The Toyonoka strawberry has a short conical fruit shape, a bright red and glossy fruit surface, light red flesh, relatively firm flesh and tough skin, is tolerant of storage and transportation, and has a moderately sweet-and-sour flavor, with a soluble solids content of 8-13%. It is juicy with fine flesh, rich in aroma, and of excellent quality. It is suitable for open-field cultivation in the south. When forced cultivation is used in greenhouses, the fruit can be harvested and marketed in mid to late November.

3. Juxing No. 1 strawberry: The Juxing No. 1 strawberry has exceptionally large fruit, is extremely tolerant of storage and transportation, and has an especially high yield. The fruit is conical, bright red and gorgeous, uniform and glossy in appearance, richly aromatic, mellow and sweet without sourness, with good flesh firmness and strong skin toughness. It can be stored at room temperature for 45 days without changing color or deteriorating. The average single fruit weight is 50 grams, with a maximum of 120 grams, larger than an egg, and it is called the king of strawberries today. It ripens in late April under open-field cultivation, and all the fruit ripens in March under forced cultivation in a solar greenhouse.

4. Weishi strawberry: The Weishi strawberry is suitable for growing in southern regions. The fruit is relatively large, short conical, neat, broad at the shoulders, and rounded at the tip. The fruit surface is bright red (carmine pigment content 0.675%), and the flesh is white, red near the fruit surface, fine and soft, very juicy, with a rich sweet-and-sour flavor and a high soluble solids content of 12-13%. The fruit surface is firm and has good storage tolerance. The single fruit weight is 14 grams, the maximum fruit weight is 18 grams, and the average yield per plant is about 150 grams. The planting period is in early March, and the ripening period is in May.

5. Zaoguang strawberry: The Zaoguang strawberry is suitable for growing in southern regions. The fruit is relatively large, conical, with a neck at the base. The fruit surface is darker red (carmine pigment 0.66%), with a bright luster. The fruit is firm, hard, and has good storage tolerance. The flesh is red, fine, soft, and compact, with a sweet, rich, slightly sour flavor. The soluble solids content is 11.4%, and the vitamin C content is 51.0 mg/100 grams. In the Nanjing region, the sprouting period is February, the flowering period is March, and the harvest begins from April to May.

6. Sanxing strawberry: The Sanxing strawberry is suitable for growing in southern China. The fruit is medium to large, long conical, with a narrowed tip and narrow shoulders, and is deep red (carmine pigment content 1.55%). The flesh is red, the core is slightly hollow, the flesh is fine, very juicy, and has a rich sweet-and-sour flavor, with a soluble solids content of 10.6%. The fruit surface is hard and has good storage tolerance. Its processing quality is excellent, and when processed into strawberry juice, the color is bright and fades slowly. The harvest periods are respectively late April to late May, early June to mid-July, and late July to mid-August.

7. Fenjienia strawberry: The Fenjienia strawberry is suitable for greenhouse planting. The fruit is long conical or long flat wedge-shaped, deep red and glossy, with a sweet-and-sour taste, high hardness, tolerance of storage and transportation, and large fruit size. The largest single fruit weight can exceed 100 grams, and the average weight of the first cluster fruit is about 42 grams. In a solar greenhouse, it can bloom and bear fruit repeatedly from late November until June to July of the following year.

8. Ningyu strawberry: The Ningyu strawberry is suitable for planting in the Jiangsu area. The fruit is conical, red, with strong luster, sparsely and evenly distributed seeds, a smooth fruit surface, a high fruit-setting rate, few deformed fruits, and a neat and beautiful appearance. The average fruit weight is 15.5 grams. The flesh is orange-red, the core is orange, the flavor is excellent, sweet and fragrant, with very light acidity, and the soluble solids content is 10.7%. The average yield per mu is 2017 kilograms. In the Nanjing region, forced cultivation generally involves planting in early September, bud appearance in mid to late October, and the fruit first ripening from late November to early December.

9. Japan No. 1 strawberry: The Japan No. 1 strawberry is suitable for cultivation in both northern and southern regions. It is currently Japan's newest large-fruit, high-yield, high-quality new strawberry variety, and its root system is especially developed, its growth is very vigorous, and it has almost no period of growth decline. It is both tolerant of high temperatures and resistant to cold, with strong adaptability and good disease resistance. It generally begins harvesting fruit in late November and finishes in June of the following year, with a supply period as long as 7 months.