Effect of Different Doses of NPK at Different Time Intervals on Growth, Yield and Quality of Strawberry CV. Chandler (Fragaria ananassa)

Abstract

Proper nutrition at the appropriate developmental stage is essential for the growth, yield and fruit quality of strawberries. Therefore, a study was carried out to check the effect of different doses of macronutrients at various, stages of strawberry cv. “Chandler”. The strawberry runner was planted in a 10-inch plastic bag. NPK doses of 1g and 2g were applied at different physiological i.e., at planting, two to three leaves stage, and at blooming. Among all the treatments application of NPK @ 2 g increased all the vegetative as well as reproductive parameters including plant height (cm), number of leaves /plant, plant canopy measurement (cm), leaf area (cm3), leaf fresh weight (g), leaf dry weight (g), number of trusses per plant, number of flowers per plant, fruit set percentage, fruit weight (g), fruit size (cm), number of fruit set, total soluble solid (0Brix), vitamin c (mg/100ml) and titratable acidity (%). Application of these macronutrients @ of 1g also increased all these parameters significantly with respect to control. Comparison of treatment means showed significantly better results for vegetative parameters with different doses of NPK at the 2 to 3 leaves stage. The study also revealed that the application of NPK fertilizer at the flowering stage improved reproductive, as well as fruit quality parameters especially fruit size, weight, TSS, and ascorbic acid. It can be concluded that both reproductive and vegetative parameters were improved significantly when plants were treated with 2g NPK at the 2 to 3 leaves stage.