Impact of Micronutrients on Flowering, Yield, and Fruit Quality Attributes of Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch) cv. Camarosa Under Open Field Conditions
摘要
The present investigation was conducted during two consecutive years, 2023–2024 and 2024–2025 at the experimental farm of Sanjeev Agrawal Global Educational University, Bhopal (M. P.), to evaluate the impact of exogenous application of micronutrients on flowering, yield, and fruit quality attributes of the strawberry cv. Camarosa under open field conditions. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with sixteen treatments and three replications. The results indicated that foliar applications of various micronutrients significantly improved the flowering, yield and fruit quality attributes, and superior profitability in strawberry. Among the various treatment combinations, the treatment T14 exhibited the shortest duration for days to first flowering (47.29), days from flowering to fruit set (6.26) and days from fruit set to maturity (20.07), followed by treatment T15. Moreover, in terms of physical quality and yield characteristics, treatment T14 recorded the highest values of fruit weight (19.79 g), fruit volume (14.86 cm3), fruit firmness (1.43 kg/cm2), specific gravity (1.16 g/cc), number of fruits per plant (23.75), fruit set (87.69%), fruit yield per plant (413.21 g), total yield (22.31 t/ha) and benefit cost ratio (4.55), followed by treatment T15. Furthermore, in terms of chemical quality characteristics, treatment T14 recorded the highest values for TSS (12.06 °Brix), total sugars (8.44%), reducing sugars (5.91%), non-reducing sugars (2.40%), and TSS: acidity ratio (19.04), followed by treatment T15. Additionally, the lowest acidity (0.63%) was also observed under treatment T14. The objective of this investigation is to assess the impact of foliar applications of micronutrients on the reproductive traits, yield, and fruit quality of the strawberry cv. Camarosa.