Optimal fertigation for high yield and fruit quality of greenhouse strawberry

PLoS One. 2020 Apr 1;15(4):e0224588. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224588. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and water are four crucial factors that have significant effects on strawberry yield and fruit quality. We used a 11 that involved 36 treatments with five levels of each of the four variables (N, P, and K fertilizers and water) to optimize fertilization and water combination for high yield and quality. Moreover, we used the SSC/TA ratio (the ratio of soluble solid content to titratable acid) as index of quality. Results showed that N fertilizer was the most important factor, followed by water and P fertilizer, and the N fertilizer had significant effect on yield and SSC/TA ratio. By contrast, the K fertilizer had significant effect only on yield. N×K fertilizer interacted significantly on yield, whereas the other interactions among the four factors had no significant effects on yield or SSC/TA ratio. The effects of the four factors on yield and SSC/TA ratio were ranked as N fertilizer > water > K fertilizer > P fertilizer and N fertilizer > P fertilizer > water > K fertilizer, respectively. The yield and SSC/TA ratio increased when NPK fertilizer and water increased, but then decreased when excessive NPK fertilizer and water were applied. The optimal fertilizer and water combination were 22.28-24.61 g plant-1 Ca (NO3)2·4H2O, 1.75-2.03 g plant-1 NaH2PO4, 12.41-13.91 g plant-1 K2SO4, and 12.00-13.05 L water plant-1 for yields of more than 110 g plant-1 and optimal SSC/TA ratio of 8.5-14.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Agricultural Irrigation / methods*
  • Agricultural Irrigation / standards
  • Biomass
  • Crop Production / methods*
  • Crop Production / standards
  • Fertilizers / standards*
  • Fragaria / drug effects
  • Fragaria / growth & development*
  • Fruit / growth & development
  • Fruit / standards
  • Nitrogen / pharmacology
  • Phosphorus / pharmacology
  • Potassium / pharmacology

Substances

  • Fertilizers
  • Phosphorus
  • Nitrogen
  • Potassium

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program (Grant No. 2016YED0201000-2016YED0201003), NSFC Project (31971786), and Yunnan Academician Expert Workstation (Li Minzan, Grant No. 20170907).