BACKGROUND In maritime growing environments, blueberry yield often exhibits excessive season-to-season variation, associated with poorly adapted photosynthetic responses to low light conditions.1 It is therefore necessary to develop methods that stabilise yield whilst maintaining or improving fruit quality. Here, we placed reflective mulch alongside plants at the early green fruit stage, to test the hypothesis that increasing the available seasonal light integral could enhance blueberry yield. We further determined several quality characteristics to ensure fruit marketability. RESULTS Placement of mulch alongside plants reflected up to five times more light compared with bare ground, enhancing the amount of light reaching the canopy. This led to an adaptive increase of light saturated maximal photosynthetic rate of mulch-treated plants, resulting in a two-fold increase in yield compared with control plants. Analysis of fruit quality characteristics showed that total soluble solids, sugars and organic acids were similar between treatments. Likewise, antioxidant capacity, total anthocyanin content and the content of individual anthocyanins did not change in response to reflective mulch treatment. CONCLUSIONS The use of reflective mulch should be explored by industry as a cost-effective method for enhancing blueberry yield whilst maintaining fruit quality in maritime environments. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

中文翻译：

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反光覆盖物提高了生长在北部海洋环境中的高丛蓝莓（Vaccinium corymbosum L. cv. Darrow）的果实产量，同时保持了关键的果实品质特征

背景在海洋生长环境中，蓝莓产量经常表现出过度的季节间变化，这与对弱光条件的光合反应适应性差1相关。因此，有必要开发稳定产量同时保持或提高果实质量的方法。在这里，我们在早期绿色果实阶段将反光覆盖物放在植物旁边，以检验增加可用季节性光积分可以提高蓝莓产量的假设。我们进一步确定了几个质量特征，以确保水果的适销性。结果 与裸地相比，在植物旁边放置覆盖物反射的光线高达五倍，从而增加了到达树冠的光线量。这导致覆盖物处理植物的光饱和最大光合速率适应性增加，与对照植物相比，产量增加了两倍。果实品质特征分析表明，处理间总可溶性固形物、糖分和有机酸含量相似。同样，抗氧化能力、总花青素含量和单个花青素的含量没有随着反射覆盖处理而变化。结论 工业界应探索使用反光覆盖物作为在海洋环境中提高蓝莓产量同时保持果实质量的一种经济有效的方法。本文受版权保护。版权所有。总花青素含量和单个花青素含量没有随着反光覆盖处理而变化。结论 工业界应探索使用反光覆盖物作为在海洋环境中提高蓝莓产量同时保持果实质量的一种经济有效的方法。本文受版权保护。版权所有。总花青素含量和单个花青素含量没有随着反光覆盖处理而变化。结论 工业界应探索使用反光覆盖物作为在海洋环境中提高蓝莓产量同时保持果实质量的一种经济有效的方法。本文受版权保护。版权所有。