Response of Strawberry CV. Festival to Culture Media and Foliar Application of Nano and Normal Micronutrients

Abstract

The study was done in a greenhouse at the department of Horticulture and Landscape Gardening, College of Agriculture, University of Anbar for the growing season 2019-2020. It was designed to study the effect of the agricultural media and spraying with nano and normal zinc and iron on the traits of flowers and yield of Strawberry (CV. Festival) under the protective environment conditions. Three agricultural media were used for the first factor included: (River soil and Peat moss 3:1), (River soil and “50% Coantail + 50% Alfalfa” 3:1) and (River soil and poultry waste 3:1), presented with symbols (M1, M2, M3), respectively. The second factor consisted of spraying with zinc and iron nano and normal with the following concentrations (normal-Zn 50 mg L-1, nano-Zn 10 and 20 mg L-1, normal-Iron 150 mg L-1, and nano-iron 20 and 40 mg L-1) in addition to the control treatment (distilled water), mentioned as (S0, S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6), respectively. The results revealed that planting Strawberry in different media had a significant effect on flower traits and yield especially the media culture (M3) which presented the best results for the traits (number of flowers, percentage of flowers set, number of fruits, weight, length and diameter of fruit, and yield), which reached (34.4 flower plant-1, 77.5%, 28.4 fruit plant-1, 21.50 g, 4.28 cm, 3.37 cm and 628.1 g plant-1). On the other hand, the media culture (M3) caused a reduction in the percentage of the fruits malformation to a minimum value of (14.9%). Spraying with nano-zinc and iron and normal zinc and iron achieved significant effect, especially (S5), that gave the highest values for the traits ( number of flowers, percentage of flowers set, number of fruits, weight, length and diameter of fruit, and yield) which were (32.8 flower plant-1,76.5%, 25.6 fruit plant-1, 21.12 g, 4.20 cm, 3.42 cm, and 554.4 g plant-1) respectively. On the other hand, (S5) concentration caused a reduction in the percentage of the fruits malformation to a minimum value of (14.2%). The interaction between the two factors of the study in all of the responses studied. The treatment interaction (M3S5) gave the best results for traits (number of flowers, percentage of flowers set, percentage of the fruits malformation, number of fruits, weight and length of fruit, and yield), which reached (42.0 flower plant-1, 83.4%, 11.8%, 31.2 fruit plant-1, 25.58 g, 4.72 cm and 782.4 g plant-1), respectively. On the other hand, the treatment interaction (M2S4) showed the highest value of fruit diameter (3.84 cm).