Effect of a New Remediated Substrate on Fruit Quality and Bioactive Compounds in Two Strawberry Cultivars

Abstract

The dredging materials extracted from seaports, considered as contaminants, can be a problem at the time of removal from the environmental point of view. Currently, there is a progressive exhaustion of peatland; and therefore, a substitute for peat mass as a growing substrate is required. These reasons make it a priority to seek solutions in both directions. For this reason has been want to show the suitability of dredged sediment, after being bioremediated for 3 years, as a new substrate in agriculture. Thus, were studied the behavior of dredged remediated sediments on fruit quality and bioactive compounds of two strawberry cultivars “Camarosa” and “Monterrey”. The strawberries were grown on three substrate-based treatments: peat 100%, sediment 100% and 50% both (mixture). Fresh weight, firmness, soluble solids content, titratable acidity, maturity index, sugars, sweetness index, acids, vitamin C, sugars-acids ratio, antioxidant activity and total phenol content were determined for each treatment. The results indicated that no significant differences were established on fruit quality within different treatments. The strawberries grown under dredged remediated sediment (DRS) and Peat-DRS substrate (mixture 50%) showed a high content in vitamin C, total phenols and antioxidant activity, also had the highest sweetness index and a good firmness. The present study has shown that the used of DRS as a growing substrate for strawberries are a valid alternative to satisfy the progressive shortage of the traditional substrates and should be further investigated in order to modify European legislation on growing substrates for agricultural uses.