Abstract
Soil solarization is a hydrothermal procedure of disinfesting soil of soilborne diseases and pests. Solarization can be combined with many other chemical or non-chemical alternatives to afford integrated pest and diseases management or improve plant yield. Calcium cyanamide (CaCN2) is a fertilizer used in agriculture sector and is also effective in suppressing soilborne pathogens. The present study assessed the influences of different pre-plant CaCN2 dosages on strawberry grown on solarized or non-solarized soil. Soil solarization and 500 kg ha−1 CaCN2 significantly increased early marketable yield by 105.3%, total marketable yield by 53.0% and firmness by 3.0%, respectively compared with the control (no solarization × 0 kg ha−1 of CaCN2). Exposing solarized plots to CaCN2 at 1000 kg ha−1 significantly increased fruit ascorbic acid content by 77.5% and phenolic content by 13.3% compared with fruits from control plants. Overall, plants grown on solarized soil performed better than those cultivated on no-solarized plots. Plants grown on soil treated with a dosage of 500 or 1000 kg ha−1 CaCN2 increased plant height, number of shoots plant−1, number of leaves plant−1, root collar diameter, plant visual quality, anthocyanins, and antioxidant capacity compared to control plants. Fruits from plants grown on soil exposed to CaCN2 with a dosage of 500 and 1000 kg ha−1 showed a lower N fruit content (5.4 and 19.5%, respectively) than control plants (non-treated control).
Highlights
Strawberry Fragaria × ananassa Duch. (2n = 8x = 56) is an economically important fruit crop belonging to the Rosaceae family
For the monthly marketable and total yield, a significant interaction was found between soil solarization and CaCN2 pre-plant treatment (Table 1)
Plants grown on solarized soil and subjected to CaCN2 treatment with a dosage of 500 kg ha−1 had the highest marketable yield in December, followed by plants cultivated on solarized soil and treated with 1000 kg ha−1 of CaCN2 (Table 1)
Summary
Differs from other strawberry production zones due toearlier fruit ripening This earliness is enhanced by the use of fresh plants, which, compared to the cold-stored plants used in the past, have expanded the harvest window from December to May and provided fruits of higher quality [2,3]. The intensive cropping systems, adopted generally for strawberry production under protected cultivation, have determined an upsurge of biotic detrimental factors [5] that can negatively affect yield and strawberry fruit quality [3]. These unfavorable factors caused an enlarge in the use of input factors, such as chemical fertilizer and pesticides, that in turn have led to ecological and health concerns. Subsequent to the ban of methyl bromide, since 2005 in developed countries and Agronomy 2019, 9, 513; doi:10.3390/agronomy9090513 www.mdpi.com/journal/agronomy
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