Organic Alternatives Improve Growth, Yield and Soil Attributes of Strawberry (Fragaria × Ananassa Duch.) Cv. ‘Sweet Charlie’
摘要
To achieve quality strawberry production without hampering its nutritive value, the use of eco-friendly organic amendments is seen as a preferable resort. Keeping in view their lucrative effects, an experiment was carried out during 2021–2022 aimed at evaluating the impact of organic nutrient sources on growth, yield and soil properties of strawberry cv. ‘Sweet Charlie’. The experiment was set up in a naturally ventilated polycarbonate house and was laid out in randomized block design (RBD) and replicated thrice. The effects of these various alternative combinations (vermicompost, humic acid, neem cake, plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria [PGPR] and jeevamrit) were investigated during studies. There was a 0.19%, 0.18 and 1.90% increase in plant height, leaf area and number of crowns in T6, respectively, over control (T10). Similarly, an improvement of 3.80, 6.39 and 13.59% in the number of flowers, fruit set and yield was eventually recorded under the same treatment. There was also a 20.00, 15.96, 0.24 and 0.80% significant increase with respect to carbon partitioning in shoots, soil organic carbon, available N and K under T6 compared to control. In addition to this, 53.05, 43.14 and 14.29% enhancement under T6 for bacterial, actinomycetes and fungal counts were also observed. Treatment T6, with the promising performance comprising 80% recommended dose of nitrogen (RDN)—40% through vermicompost (120 g/m2 bed), 40% through neem cake (60 g/m2 bed), humic acid (10 g/plant), and jeevamrit + PGPR, each 25 ml/plant, displayed the effective potential for nutrient management in cultivating strawberries within an organic production system.