Effects of Seven Substrates on Qualitative and Quantitative Characteristics of Three Strawberry Cultivars Under Soilless Culture

Use of sawdust, coco soil and pumice in hydroponically grown strawberry

“…Fruit number produced in plants grown in Coc-100 did not differ with the equivalent number produced in Saw-100, and this is in agreement with previous studies when three tomato cultivars were grown in Saw-100 and Coc-100 (Sawan and Eissa 1996). Similarly, strawberry plants grown in sand 100% produced flowers earlier than in other growing media, including organic/inorganic mixtures with Cocopeat (Tehranifar et al 2007). …”

“…Fruits obtained by Saw-100 substrate were more acid compared with fruits obtained by and Coc-Pum (50-50) as presented in Table 3. No differences observed in TSS among treatments, being in agreement with previous study in strawberry plant grown in cocopeat 100%, cocopeat-perlite (40-60), perlite 100% and sand 100% (Tehranifar et al 2007). In previous studies, coco soil affected positively tomato fruit quality i.e.…”

“…Leaf number increased up to 50% in plants grown in Saw-100 and up to 34% in plants grown in substrate mixtures compared with the control treatment (Pum-100), while no differences were observed among substrate mixtures. Similarly, leaf number was greater in strawberry plants grown in media containing peat rather than inorganic substrates, such as perlite or sand (Tehranifar et al 2007). The number of stolons increased up to 70% in plants grown in Coc-100 compared with the respective plant grown in Saw-100 or Pum-100, yet no differences were observed in plants grown in substrate mixtures (in 50:50 ratio) (Figure 2), which is in agreement with previous findings in strawberry plant when grown in seven media.…”

“…However, plants produced most runners in Coc-100 and the least in perlite (similar inorganic media as pumice) (Tehranifar et al 2007). Guttrige (1985) also reported that number of runners of strawberry plants is different in different cultivars and under different growth conditions.…”

“…Inorganic substrates such as perlite, sand and pumice, are chemically inert, making it possible to supply nutrients in a controlled manner (De Rijck and Schrevens 1998). Several studies reported the favorable effect that organic materials have on plant growth (Sawan and Eissa 1996, Tehranifar et al 2007, Tzortzakis and Economakis 2008, as increased substrate porosity and water holding capacity (Hardgrave and Harriman 1995). Arancon et al (2004) reported that organic matter (vermicompost) applications increased strawberry growth and yields significantly, including increases of up to 37% in leaf areas, 37% in plant shoot biomass, 40% in numbers of flowers, 36% in numbers of plant runners and 35% in marketable fruit weights.…”