* Corresponding author: I Nyoman Rai Copyright © 2024 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0. Response of off-season strawberries (Fragaria sp.) production under the effects of paclobutrazol and drought stress Komang Sandiasa, I Nyoman Rai * , Ida Ayu Putri Darmawati and I Gusti Ngurah Santosa Labolatory of Agronomy and Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Gedung Agrokomplek Lt.2 Kampus PB. Sudirman, Denpasar-Bali, Indonesia. GSC Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2024, 26(01), 025–032 Publication history: Received on 26 September 2023; revised on 19 November 2023; accepted on 22 November 2023 Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.30574/gscbps.2024.26.1.0471 Abstract Strawberry (Fragaria sp.) is a fruit crop harvested seasonally with the peak season from August to November while the off-season harvest is January to June with limited harvest. The purpose of this study was to find the concentration of paclobutrazol and the level of drought stress for off-season strawberry production. This research conducted on April to July 2023. The experiment used a factorial Randomized Block Design consisting of 2 factors and 3 replications with 16 treatment combinations. The first factor was paclobutrazol consisting of four levels, namely P0 = control, P1 = 10,000 ppm, P2 = 20,000 ppm and P3 = 30,000 ppm and the second factor was the level of drought stress consisting of four levels i.e. C0 = 100% field capacity, C1 = 80% field capacity, C2 = 60% field capacity and C3 = 40% field capacity. The results showed that paclobutrazol accelerated flowering time, increased fruit set, leaf relative water content, root length, chlorophyll content, but decreased the number of fruits formed, harvested fruits, fruit diameter, harvested fruit weight, weight per fruit, root oven dry weight, percentage of fallen fruits and total soluble solids. Drought stress level increased leaf relative water content, root length, root oven dry weight, percentage of fallen fruit, percentage of fruit set, but decreased number of flowers formed, fruits harvested, weight of fruits harvested, weight per fruit, fruit diameter, total soluble solids, chlorophyll content and delayed flowering time. Keywords: Drought stress; Off-season; Paclobutrazol; Strawberry 1. Introduction Strawberry (Fragaria sp.) is one of the important horticultural commodities in the world, especially for countries that have a tropical climate. Strawberries are a type of annual plant where strawberries can live up to two years. Based on Bali central statistics agency data [1] shows that the national production of strawberries reached 98,596 tons. Indonesia has the potential to develop strawberry plants for consumption as fresh fruit or processed fruit. Pancasari Village is one of the strawberry producing villages in Bali Province. In the period of January to June strawberry production has decreased due to high rainfall. To support production during the off-season can be done by modifying the growing environment, namely providing the application of growth regulators and drought stress. One of the growth regulators that can be used to shift vegetative growth towards generative growth is paclobutrazol. Paclobutrazol is able to increase the average peach fruit weight up to 49% [2], increase the weight and percentage of total pear yield [3], increase the yield and number of apple fruits [4]. Meanwhile Rumada et al. [5] reported paclobutrazol is able to accelerate the time to start appearing flowers on mangosteen plants. Apart from the application of paclobutrazol, drought stress can be used to increase crop production. Rahayu et al. [6] reported that the duration of drought stress given for 2 weeks accelerated the flowering time in Madura tangerine