A system for producing large quantities of greenhouse-grown strawberry plantlets for plug production

A greenhouse hydroponic system, which uses suspended plastic troughs, was found to be an efficient system for the production of high quality strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) plantlets. In this system micropropagated mother plants of 'Oso Grande' and 'Sweet Charlie' produced an average of 84 and 80 daughters per mother plant, respectively, in 1996, at a plant density of 3 mother plants/ft(2)(32 mother plants/ m(2)). Nearly 100% of the plantlets harvested from the system were successfully rooted in plug trays, and showed no symptoms of leaf or crown diseases.