Foliar Silicon Spray to Strawberry Plants During Summer Cutting Propagation Enhances Resistance of Transplants to High Temperature Stresses

Abstract

Silicon (Si) has been reported to benefit plant growth and stress resistance. This work aimed to find out an optimal method of Si application to enhance the resistance of strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) transplants to high temperatures, commonly experienced in the summer when strawberries are propagated for greenhouse production in Korea. Plants of strawberry “Sulhyang”, “Maehyang”, and “Kuemsil” were subjected to one of five treatments before the cutting propagation: no treatment (control), substrate dressing of a water-soluble silicate fertilizer, substrate drench of 75 mg·L−1 Si (from potassium silicate) to the mother plants, or foliar spray of 75 mg·L−1 Si to either the mother plants or daughter plants. Half of the daughter plants in each Si treatment received continued application of Si through either substrate dressing of a water-soluble silicate fertilizer, substrate drench, or foliar spray after the cutting propagation. A high temperature (43°C) resistance test was conducted in plant growth chambers for 7 days with a 16-h photoperiod with a light intensity of 300 mmol·m−2·s−1 PPFD. During the high temperature test, the rate of decline in the photosynthesis was lower in plants treated with Si than in the control. After the high temperature test, it was observed that Si application significantly increased the shoot fresh weight of transplants. Moreover, the contents of sugars, proteins, and enzymatic (CAT, SOD, POD, and APX) and non-enzymatic (anthocyanin and proline) antioxidants were higher in plants treated with Si throughout the entire propagation period, compared to the control and plants only treated with Si before or after the cutting propagation. Overall, the Si application improved the growth of the transplants regardless of the application method used. Moreover, spraying the daughter plants with Si, and continually spraying the transplants were found to be the best and is recommended to increase the resistance of strawberries to high temperatures during propagation.

Investigating Potassium silicate efficacy for improving the strawberry agronomic traits and gray mold fungal resistance

“…The following studies also reported that Si treatments signi cantly improved vegetative growth in strawberry plants [46,48,49] and other plants [50,51]. The differential response of the potassium silicate treatment in strawberry plants improved the 'plant's physiological traits, such as leaf area, root and shoot growth, and biomass [20,22,24,28,46].…”

“…Similarly, different Si treatments in strawberries and other fruit crops were reported to increase the fruit yield [23,28,52]. However, most studies were conducted under controlled environmental conditions [24,47,48,52] or open elds [23]. Our study evaluated the effective concentration of Si foliar spray application for strawberry production and overall plant health under high tunnel conditions.…”

“…Research on Si treatments and their interactions with plants is expanding, with a primary focus on the applications on plant growth and yield parameters [19]. Si treatments in strawberries and other crop plants have proven bene cial to their overall health and ameliorate the consequences of abiotic and biotic stress [15,[19][20][21][22][23][24]. Previous research has demonstrated the e cacy of Si in reducing different fungal diseases in strawberries [13,23,25].…”