Effect of planting density on growth, yield and quality of strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) cv. Camarosa

Abstract

An investigation was carried out at experimental field, Department of Horticulture, Aromatic and Medicinal Plants, Mizoram University to study the effect of planting density on growth, yield and quality of strawberry(Fragaria ×ananassaa Duch.) cv. Camarosa. The experiment comprises of a number of planting densities, viz. T1: 50 × 40 cm,T2 : 40 × 40 cm, T3 : 40 × 30 cm, T4 : 30 × 30 cm, T5: 30 × 25 cm, T6 : 25 × 25 cm, T7 : 25 × 20 cm and T8 : 20 × 20 cm and T8 : 20 × 20 cm. Among the different planting density, the maximum growth in terms of plant height (26.85 cm), E-W (37.83 cm) and N-S spread (39.58 cm), number of leaves (34.45), leaf area (213.92 cm2) and crowns/plant (8.11) were observed in the widest spacing, i.e. 50 × 40 cm. This treatment also exhibit superiority in yield attributing characters like berry set percentage (81.17), berry weight (21.73 g), berry diameter (36.06 mm), berry length (43.73 mm), number of berries/plant (21.05) and total biomass (964.64 g). The quality parameters of the fruit like TSS (8.94 °Brix), titratable acidity (0.812%), TSS: acid ratio (11.03), total sugars (8.50%), reducing (4.78%) ascorbic acid (67.67/mg/100g) and anthocyanin content (38.53 mg/100g) were also found superior in this spacing. The overall assessment of the present study concluded that a spacing 50 × 40cm is the most efficient planting denstity for improving growth, yield and quality in Camarosa strawberry under Mizoram conditions.

Crop Geometry and Mulch on Strawberry Postharvest Quality

“…Maximum total sugar (6.38%) and reducing sugar (5.61%) under silver black mulch might be attributed to high soil temperature and higher nutrient availability which provided favourable microclimate for increased sugar content. The current findings are in consonance with results of [24] who got total sugars (8.50%), reducing sugar (4.78%) in strawberry under wider spacing and [25] reported total sugar (5.71%), reducing sugar (3.41%), non-reducing sugar (2.30%) in aonla.…”

“…Higher titratable acidity (0.74%) was obtained under closer spacing of 20 cm × 30 cm and 30 cm × 30 cm whereas minimum titratable acidity (0.71%) was recorded under wider spacing of 40 cm × 60 cm which might be due to shade effect where sugar conversion from organic acid is hampered due to lack of sufficient light in closer spacing. Least titratable acidity (0.65%) was found in silver black mulch and red mulch which might be due to rapid conversion of organic acid to sugars and more reflection of photosynthetically active radiation(PAR) from plastic mulch into fruiting zone elevated conversion into sugars and reduction of acidity [24] obtained lowest titrable acidity (0.812%) under wider spacing of 50 cm × 40 cm and [26] reported least acidity (1.40%) in plants under black polyethylene film and higher acid content (1.52%) under unmulched plants during his study on plum. Perusal of data revealed that the maximum ascorbic acid (78.65 mg 100 g −1 ) was recorded in 40 cm × 60 cm was at par with 40 cm × 40 cm mg 100 g −1 ) whilst the minimum ascorbic acid was recorded in 20 cm × 30 cm (67.30 mg 100 g −1 ).…”

Impact of Plant Spacing and Mulch on Growth Parameters of Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.)

“…Higher fruit setting in plant under wider spacing might be due to greater photosynthetic activity because of exposure of more number of leaves to sunlight, while availability of poor sunlight to the lower leaves of the plant at closer spacing becomes a limiting factor and adversely affects the flowering and fruiting. Research results are in accordance with the findings of [10,46,47,48].…”

“…This might have helped in production of higher leaf area by producing wider leaves in wider spacing and narrow leaves in closer spacing. These results were supported by findings [8,9,10,11].…”