Abstract
Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) is widely grown and highly appreciated by consumers around the world for its delicious, soft, and highly nutritious fruits. Turkey is one of the most important strawberry producers in the world. Strawberry cultivation in Turkey typically involves the use of chemical fertilizers and more recently organic and organic + chemical fertilizers have been started to use in commercial production to produce healthier fruits. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the effect of organic, chemical, and organic + chemical fertilizer treatments in strawberry (cvs. ‘Albion’, ‘San Andreas’ and ‘Monterey’) fruit quality parameters including fruit color (L*, a*, b*, C and h°) parameters, soluble solids content, total acidity, fruit firmness, vitamin C, specific sugars and organic acids. Results showed that in particular fruit color parameters, soluble solid content (SSC), total acidity, fruit firmness, and vitamin C (L-Ascorbic acid) in fruits of three strawberry cultivars were significantly affected by different fertilizer applications (p < 0.05). Compared with conventional chemical fertilizer treatment, the organic fertilizer treatment produced fruit with significantly higher contents of SSC and glucose but decreased fruit firmness and vitamin C. Organic fertilizer also gave more intense colored strawberry fruits with high Chroma values (47,948 in organic fertilizer application and 39,644 and 39,931 in organic + chemical fertilizer and chemical fertilizer, respectively). Citric acid was identified to be the predominant organic acid in strawberry fruits but treatments were found insignificant on citric acid content.
Highlights
Strawberries (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) are among the widely produced and consumed berry fruit in the world
Results showed that the organic acid contents have negligible to moderate negative correlation with the a*, b*, C, and Hue values of color
There are a limited number of studies in the literature on the biochemical contents of strawberry fruits in organic fertilizer conditions
Summary
Strawberries (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) are among the widely produced and consumed berry fruit in the world. The total cultivation area of strawberries in the world was. 396,401 ha and total production was 8,885.028 tons in 2019 [1]. The strawberry cultivation area in Turkey has increased in recent years and it was about 11,679 ha in 2010 to and reached 15,392 ha in 2017. The suitability of ecological conditions in different regions of the country promoted the rapid increase of strawberry production [2]. More recently strawberries have gained high praise among consumers for their unique taste, availability year-round, and health benefits. Today’s consumers are more knowledgeable and they are in demand of more attractive, high quality, nutritionally versatile, and safer plant produce. Strawberry fruits are rich in minerals, vitamins, phenolic
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