Strawberries cv. Elsanta were grown in peat bags in a glasshouse and subjected to three shading levels (0%, 25%, 47%) for 2 weeks, commencing 1 week prior to first fruit ripening. Fruit was harvested at five intervals and analysed using Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization (APCI) and direct liquid-mass spectrometry techniques. Thirteen volatiles implicated in strawberry flavour and three non-volatiles, sucrose, glucose and citric acid, were measured. Highly significant differences in volatile and non-volatile concentrations existed between harvest dates. Shading had a significant effect on hexanal, hexenal, ethyl methyl butyrate, and methyl butyrate concentrations at some harvests. In general, at each harvest the higher the level of shading the lower the level of the volatile in the fruit. Sucrose concentration showed a decrease throughout the harvest period, whereas glucose and citric acid showed less clear trends. Shading had a significant effect on glucose and sucrose concentrations. Some possible reasons for the variability in strawberry flavour are discussed.
Yields of seven different vegetable crops on one site were always much less than those on another nearby site despite the soils on both sites being of the same soil series and the incorporation of large quantities of fertilizer immediately before drilling.Severe restriction of growth on the poorer site always occurred when the plants were small. Experimental evidence showed that this restriction could not be attributed to a worse aerial environment or a poorer supply of soil nitrogen. Although there were differences in soil physical conditions these seemed unlikely to be sufficient to reduce the growth of young plants.Plants on the poorer site had much lower potassium and slightly lower phosphorus and water contents than plants on the other site.It is argued that restricted growth results from the inability of the poorer site to supply sufficient potassium and possibly phosphorus to the crop in the early stages of growth. It was also shown that these nutrient stresses could not be significantly relieved by incorporating fertilizer in any quantity, in the usual way, before drilling.
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