During the last five years important developments have occurred in strawberry culture in Turkey. Total strawberry production reached approximately 65 thousand tons and before the year 2000 production will be at least 100 thousand tons. There are numerous suitable sites for production but the Mediterranean coastal areas have the greatest potential with their citrus climate and sandy soils. In this area, modern cultural methods such as summer and autumn plantings, fresh runners rooted in pots (FRRP), solarization, black plastic mulching, drip irrigation, furtigation, walk-in high tunnels, plastic and glass houses are currently being used. Therefore, harvesting of fresh strawberries starts in the second half of November and continues up to July. The yield per plant ranges from 500 to 1100 g. Mainly Californian cultivars are grown. In the Marmara Region strawberries are produced for industry and thus cultivars suitable for freezing are in big demand. Turkey is exporting about 6 thousand tons of frozen strawberries. Most of the strawberry growers are small land holders and strawberry growing in Turkey is a family business. In Black Sea coastal areas where the soils are acid, cultivar adaptation experiments which were performed recently have given very promising results with cultivars producing fresh fruits in summer months. In South East Anatolia (the GAP region) there is a large potential since the soils are fertile (though alkaline) and plenty of irrigation water is available from the Atatiirk Dam. Experiments performed with the Californian cultivars have given promising results although the yield per plant was not as high as in the Mediterranean coastal areas
