Effects of Different Bioactivator Applications on Fruit Quality and Plant Growth in Strawberry

Abstract

Strawberry cultivation is important for human health and nutrition. Due to the high profit margin, it is one of the important agricultural production branches in the world and in our country, whose cultivation is rapidly increasing and has no marketing problems. When compared with the major strawberry producing countries, it is seen that the average yield of our country is quite low. increasing strawberry productivity is important for agricultural production and national economy. This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of different plant bioactivators in order to contribute to increase yield and quality in strawberry cultivation. The experiment was carried out in the research and application area of Akdeniz University Faculty of Agriculture between 2018-2019 in a glass greenhouse without climate control, with two seasons (Fall and Spring) and three replications. In the study, Messenger, Crop-set and ISR-2000, which are obtained from commercial companies, were used as bioactivator and neutral day cultivar ‘Albion’ strawberry was used as plant material. In order to evaluate the effects of applications on vegetative development criteria, stem diameter, plant height, number of leaves and the relationship of these variables with each other were determined. In order to determine the effects of applications on fruit quality; fruit firmness (kg), fruit weight (g), fruit diameter (mm), fruit length (mm), TSS (%), pH was determined. When the results obtained were evaluated, statistical differences were determined between the bioactivator applications and control applications in terms of different criteria. At the end of the study, the highest fruit weight (17.22 g) and length (40.65 mm) average value obtained from Crop-set application, the highest fruit diameter (31.73 mm) and fruit firmness (0.56 kg) from Messenger application while the highest TSS value (7.70%) was obtained from ISR-2000 application.

Keywords: Biostimulator, Plant activator, Fruit quality, Berry

DOI: 10.7176/JSTR/5-11-11