Yield and quality of polyhouse grown strawberries as affected by soilless media and jeevamrit

Abstract

Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) is an important small-fruit crop, belonging to the family Rosaceae. It is best grown under protected conditions but in Himachal Pradesh, it is mostly grown in open field conditions using soil as a growing media which invariably leads to many problems related to soil borne pests, diseases, nematodes and other soil limiting factors resulting in poor quality planting material thereby yielding poor quality fruits. Hence the present investigations was carried out at the Horticultural Research & Training Station and Krishi Vigyan Kendra, (HRTS & KVK) Kandaghat, Solan (H.P.), India during the cropping seasons of 2018-19 to study the effect of soilless substrates and jeevamrit on yield and quality of starawberry. The experiment comprised of six treatments viz. cocopeat (50%) + FYM (50%) + jeevamrit; perlite (50%) + FYM (50%) + jeevamrit; cocopeat (50%) + perlite (50%) + jeevamrit; perlite (75%) + cocopeat 25%) + jeevamrit; soil (50%) + FYM (50%) + jeevamrit and soil + FYM as control with four replications. The results revealed that perlite (75%) + cocopeat (25%) + jeevamrit resulted in the maximum berry yield, size, weight, total soluble solids and sugars as compared to control. Based on the results obtained, perlite (75%) + cocopeat (25%) + jeevamrit can be successfully used for the production of good quality strawberry under polyhouse.