Optimization of Yield and Quality Through Foliar Application of Water-Soluble Fertilizers in Strawberry (Fragaria × Ananassa Duch.) Cv. Camarosa
摘要
Strawberry is a high-value and nutritionally rich fruit crop that is also a highly remunerative fruit with high returns per unit area in the shortest possible time and is sensitive to nutrient availability. An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of foliar application of water-soluble fertilizers on the yield and quality of strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) cv. ‘Camarosa’. The application of T5 (without RDF + 1st, 2nd & 3rd Spray of 19:19:19 at 15, 30 & 45 DAT, 4th Spray of 0:52:34 at 60 DAT and 5th Spray of 0:0:50 at 75 DAT) resulted in the best performance for almost all the parameters studied, as it took the least days to 50% flowering (48.29), maximum number of flowers per plant (43.00), number of fruits per plant (33.60), fruit set percentage (78.48%), highest fruit length (18.40 mm), fruit diameter (16.79 mm), fruit volume (26.00 ml), maximum fruit weight (19.67 g), highest fruit yield per plant (303.89 g), yield per hectare (168.83q) and B:C ratio (4.35). The maximum TSS (8.53 brix), maximum total sugar (8.17%), reducing sugar (3.00%) and non-reducing sugar (5.17%), ascorbic acid (44.29 mg/100 g) and minimum acidity (0.77%), and pH value (3.44) were found in T5 (without RDF + 1st, 2nd & 3rd Spray of 19:19:19 at 15, 30 & 45 DAT; 4th Spray of 0:52:34 at 60 DAT and 5th Spray of 0:0:50 at 75 DAT). The control T1 displayed unsatisfactory results across all the parameters. The principal component analysis revealed that PC1 accounted for 89.70% and that PC2 accounted for 5.30% of the total variance.