Influence of soilless media and containers on shoot growth of strawberry Fragaria x ananassa Duch cv Sweet Charlie Godara Anil Kumar*, Sharma Vikas Kumar Department of Horticulture, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125004, Haryana, India *Email for correspondence: akgodara@rediffmail.com
Online published on 25 July, 2018. Abstract The shoot growth of strawberry, Fragaria x ananassa Duch plants grown hydroponically in different substrates of cocopeat + perlite + vermicompost (3:1:1, 4:0:1, 4:1:0, 4:1:1 and 4:1:2) was studied in comparison to soil cultivation in hi-tech greenhouse at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana. The shoot growth of strawberry plants in three types of containers (polyethylene bags and PVC and earthen pots) in two different sizes was also studied. The results indicated that application of soilless substrate improved indices of shoot growth of strawberry. The maximum shoot length (23.60 cm), fresh and dry weight (29.60 and 8.11 g respectively) and root/shoot ratio (0.67) were obtained in interaction M1 (soilless substrate and large sized earthen pot) while minimum was observed in the interaction M0C1 combination. The different containers improved the growth parameters; the maximum increase was in earthen pots followed by PVC pots and polyethylene bags. The present findings highlight the use of substrate (3:1:1) and earthen pots which was best for shoot growth parameters of strawberry followed by substrates 4:1:2 and 4:1:1 and PVC pots. Top Keywords Hydroponics, polyhouse, Sweet Charlie, shoot growth, soilless media. Top |