Yield, quality, and phytochemicals of two strawberry cultivars in response to foliar calcium nanofertilization

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate the foliar application of Calcium (Ca2+) nanofertilizer on the yield, fruit quality, total phytochemicals and capacity of two strawberry cultivars 'Monterrey' and 'Albion' of Fragaria x annanassa Duch. Design/ Methodology/ Approach: three foliar calcium treatments were established (two commercial foliar fertilizers, one nanofertilizer). The doses used were 2.5, 5 and 7 mEq L-1 and were applied at the stages of beginning of flowering, full flowering, end of flowering, fruit setting and full production. The design of the experiment was randomized blocks in four replicates, each replicate consisted of a 1 m2 area, with 16 plants. An analysis of variance was performed and the Tukey´s test (p≤0.05) was applied for comparison of means. Results: the results indicated that doses of 2.5 mEq L-1 for the 'Monterrey' cultivar and 5 mEq L-1 for the 'Albion' cultivar favored increases in total phenols, total flavonoids, total anthocyanins, antioxidant capacity and higher yields, by obtaining 13 kg m-2 and 12.59 kg m-2 from those cultivars, respectively. Findings/ Conclusions: this indicates that the use of nano-calcium as a foliar fertilizer could be a suitable alternative that helps improving the bioactive compounds and yields of strawberry fruits.