Influence of Fertilizer Type on Physiological Responses during Vegetative Growth in ‘Seolhyang’ Strawberry

Abstract

Objective of this research was to investigate the influence of compositions and concentrations of fertilizer solutions on the vegetative growth and nutrient uptake of 'Seolhyang' strawberry. To achieve this, the solutions of acid fertilizer (AF), neutral fertilizer (NF), and basic fertilizer (BF) were prepared at concentrations of 100 or based on N and applied during the 100 days after transplanting. The changes in chemical properties of the soil solution were analysed every two weeks, and crop growth measurements as well as tissue analyses for mineral contents were conducted 100 days after fertilization. The growth was the highest in the treatments with BF, followed by those with NF and AF. The heaviest fresh and dry weights among treatments were 151.3 and 37.8 g, respectively, with BF . In terms of tissue nutrient contents, the highest N, P and Na contents, of 3.08, 0.54, and 0.10%, respectively, were observed in the treatment with NF . The highest K content was 2.83%, in the treatment with AF , while the highest Ca and Mg were 0.98 and 0.42%, respectively, in BF . The AF treatments had higher tissue Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu contents compared to those of NF or BF when fertilizer concentrations were controlled to equal. During the 100 days after fertilization, the highest and lowest pH in soil solution of root media among all treatments tested were 6.67 in BF and 4.69 in AF , respectively. The highest and lowest ECs were in BF and in BF , respectively. For the concentrations of macronutrients in the soil solution of root media, the AF treatment gave the highest concentrations followed by NF and AF . The K concentrations in all treatments rose gradually after day 42 in all treatments. When fertilizer concentrations were controlled to equal, the highest Ca and Mg concentrations were observed in AF followed by NF and BF until day 84 in fertilization. The BF treatments produced the highest concentrations, followed by NF and AF. The trends in the change of concentration were similar in all treatments. The concentrations were higher in treatments with AF than those with NF or BF until day 70 in fertilization. These results indicate that compositions of fertilizer solution should to be modified to contain more alkali nutrients when 'Seolhyang' strawberry is cultivated through inert media and nutri-culture systems.