The objective of this research was to investigate the influence of various depths of expanded rice hull (ERH) medium and fixation dates of runner plantlets of 'Seolhyang' strawberry on the growths in nursery field and in plastic house soil after transplanting. The five treatments in medium depths (30, 50, 70, 90, and 110 mm) and four treatments in fixation dates (1st and 15th July and 1st and 15th August) were tested. The growths of runner plantlets were investigated before transplanting to plastic house soil. The early growth and inflorescence rates of crops after transplant to plastic house soil were also investigated. The plant height and fresh weight of runner plantlets were the highest in the medium depths of 50, 70, and 90 mm. The medium depth of 30 mm had higher numbers of first roots, but lower root fresh weight compared to those of 70, 90, and 110 mm. The treatment of 30 mm in medium depth showed poorer growth in all indexes except root length and root weight compared to those of 70, 90, and 110 mm. The runner plantlets fixed on July 1 and July 15 showed good root growth and the weights of ERH adhered to form root balls were 18.3 g and 13.9 g, respectively. The detached amount of ERH was less than 40% in the two treatments when root balls were shaken by a vibratory sieve shaker. The plant growth at 45 days after transplanting to plastic house soil were not significantly different when the runner plantlets were fixed in the period from July 1 to Aug. 1. The inflorescence rates of the first cluster were 93 to 100% when runner plantlets were fixed in the period from July 1 to Aug. 1. By contrast the runner plantlets fixed on the Aug. 15 had a 67% in florescence rate for the first cluster. These results indicate that optimum depth of ERH medium was 7 cm and the ranges of optimum fixation dates are from July 20 to 25.

This research was conducted to investigate the changes in moisture retention capacities of expanded rice-hull (ERH)-based root media and their influences on the growth of mother and daughter plants in vegetative propagation of 'Seolhyang' strawberry. The proportion of water at the container capacity of ERH medium was in the range of 20 to 23%. This range was lower than the 60 to 66% of strawberry-specialized medium, the 30 to 34% of soil mother material (SMM) and the 30 to 35% of loamy sand. The moisture content of ERH was reduced to 10 to 12% at 8 hours after irrigation, and there were large variations among replications of ERH medium. Among four kinds of root media formulated to contain ERH, the medium of ERH + coir dust (CD) (55 + 45%, v/v) had 26.5 and 32.5% water contents at 20 and 40 days after irrigation to daughter plants, respectively. The media of ERH + sandy loam (SL) and ERH + SMM showed similar trends in moisture retention. The pH and EC in the all root media tested were in the range of 6.7 to 7.1 and 0.03 to 0.08 dS･m -1 , respectively. The pHs and ECs measured at 20 and 40 days after irrigation were not significantly different in each root medium. Among the root media formulated to contain ERH, the growth of daughter plants was the highest in the treatment of ERH + SL (55 + 45%, v/v). As the blending rate of coir dust was elevated in the ERH + CD media, moisture retention capacity increased gradually, but the growth of daughter plants became worse even though the medium showed higher moisture retention capacity than other root media tested. The growth of roots and aboveground tissues of daughter plants deteriorated in the root media formulated by blending ERH + perlite (PE) at various ratios. The results of this research suggest the optimum formulations of root media and management of moisture content in raising of strawberry daughter plants when ERH is a component of root media.