Soil Chemical Properties and Bush Growth of Two Blueberry Cultivars as Affected by Soil Media Mixed with Peatmoss and Cocopeat

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the usefullness of cocopeat as a soil medium in blueberry cultivation. Two-year-old northern highbush blueberry 'Duke' and southern highbush blueberry 'Spring High' were planted in soil medium mixed with peatmoss (soil:peatmoss (v/v), 1:1) or cocopeat (soil:cocopeat (v/v), 1:1) in open fields in 2019. Soil pH measured in 2020 and 2021 ranged from 4.2 to 5.0 in peatmoss and 5.2 to 5.8 in cocopeat medium, indicating peatmoss has more suitable pH for blueberry growth. Two years soil analyses indicated that peatmoss medium tended to contain a higher available P 2 O 5 content and lower exchangeable cations compared with those of cocopeat. In 2021, peatmoss medium significantly increased the number of shoots per bush, by 16% for 'Duke' and 92% for 'Spring High' compared with the cocopeat. Bushes from peatmoss medium produced yield 1.9-to 2.7-fold higher for two years in 'Duke' and 1.4-to 1.8-fold higher in 'Spring High' compared with respective yields from cocopeat. Fruit characteristics for two years were not consistently affected by different soil media, except that the acidity was slightly higher in peatmoss. The results suggested that since the better bush growth from peatmoss medium resulted mainly from lower soil pH, the use of cocopeat as a soil medium should be followed by pH adjustment.

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“…용기재배에서는 적정량의 양분공급이 매우 중요하므로 블루베리, 라즈베리, 포도의 경우 효율적인 양액재 배 기술들이 보고되어 왔다 (Himelrick and Dozier, 1994;Kim et al, 1999;Jun et al, 2006;Cheon et al, 2019Cheon et al, , 2021a. 수분과 함께 공급되는 양액의 공급량과 공급횟수는 양액의 농도와 함께 작물의 생육에 영향을 미치기 때문에 상토의 특성, 환경요인, 작물 생육 등에 맞추어 조절되어야 한다 (Bohme, 1995;Lee et al, 1998;Cheon et al, 2021b).…”