Strawberry Plug Transplant Production in Trays: The Influence of Genotype, Initial Ramet Size and Substrate

Abstract

The present study was conducted during the period 2014-2016 at the greenhouse facilities of the Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Suez Canal University.The experiment tested the effects of growing three daughter plants (ramets) sizes based on crown diameter (large > 7 mm, medium 5-7 mm and small < 5 mm) in combination with three medium types (M1, coco peat + vermiculite + perlite; M2, coco peat + rice hull + sawdust; M3, coco peat + rice hull + rice straw in 1:1:1 v/v) on plug transplant growth in container (84-cell foam trays) of three strawberry cultivars. Results of the main effect of the initial ramet size indicated positive effects of large ramet on obtaining better plug plant vegetative and rooting characteristics than medium or small size ramets. Results of the main effect of medium types showed that both M1 and M2 produced plug plants with better leaf petiole length, leaf fresh weight (FW) and Dry weight (DW) and crown diameter than M3, but root dry mass was not affected by medium types. Plug transplant grown on M3 had better contents of chlorophyll and carotenoids in their leaves than those on M1 or M2. Nutrient analysis of plug plant leaves indicated that plug plants grown on M1 had more P, K, Fe and Cu, and those on M2 had more N, Ca and Mn, while plug plants derived from M3 had more Mg and Zn. Results also indicated that plug transplants were not different in some vegetative and rooting characters among the different strawberry cultivars, especially in number of leaves per transplant, leaves FW and DW, crown DW and root DW, while root length was better in transplants of cv. 'Festival' than 'Tudla' and 'Sweet Charlie'. Leaves of plug plants in cv. 'Tudla' recorded higher chlorophyll and carotenoids than 'Festival' and 'Sweet Charlie' and also had more N, P, and K contents. Generally results indicated that optimum plug transplant production and growth was obtained by the culture of large size ramets in trays filled with any of the tested medium types and cultivars. These results indicated the possibility of producing large number of strawberry plug transplants in Egypt using soilless, suspended growing system as alternative to their production in field nursery to avoid the hazardous effects of soil fumigation and pesticide use.