Comparative analysis of the fruit characteristics of four strawberry cultivars commonly grown in South Korea

Abstract

In this study, four cultivars of strawberry commonly grown in South Korea, ‘Daewang’, ‘Seolhyang’, ‘Maehyang’, and ‘Ssanta’, were evaluated for several qualities, including the presence of phytochemicals, sugar content, organic acids, and fruit hardness. The plants were cultivated on a high-bench bed system in a plastic greenhouse and drip irrigated. Fruit samples were collected three times in February 2013 to analyze the fruit characteristics. We found that the fruit hardness of the ‘Daewang’, ‘Maehyang’, and ‘Ssanta’ cultivars was greater than that of ‘Seolhyang’, however ‘Seolhyang’ showed the highest moisture content of all the cultivars, indicating that fruit hardness was negatively associated with moisture content. Furthermore, ‘Seolhyang’ was found to have the highest levels of phenolic compounds and anthocyanins compared to the other cultivars. ‘Maehyang’ had the highest amount of total sugars. ‘Seolhyang’ and ‘Maehyang’ accumulated higher amounts of total organic acids. As a result, ‘Daewang’ and ‘Maehyang’ were expected to be preferred by consumers because they had the highest ratio of sugar to total acid in their fruit.