2014 ASHS Annual Conference

The influence of the fertilizer type and nitrogen (N) concentrations of the nutrient solution on the growth of ‘Goha’ strawberry mother plants during the vegetative propagation phase. Cold-treated mother plants at the 3 true-leaf stage were transplanted into flower pots (volume 1,600 ml) containing peat moss+perlite (7:3, v/v). Plants were fertilized with nutrient solutions containing 100 or 200 mg·L^-1 N, each prepared with acid fertilizer (AF), neutral fertilizer (NF), and basic fertilizer (BF). Tissue nutrient contents of mother plants were analyzed after 100 days of fertilization. Root substrate solutions were analyzed in every two weeks during the 100-day experimental period. Growth of mother plants measured after 100 days of fertilization was better when they were treated with BF than with NF or AF. Fresh and dry weights of plants grown with BF containing 100 mg·L^-1 N were 122 g and 51.2 g, respectively, which were the heaviest among all treatments. Soil bicarbonate concentrations in all treatments were high during the early growth period but gradually became lower as time passed. When 200 mg·L^-1 N was used, the final pH of the soil solution after 100 days of fertilization was 5.9 and 3.9, respectively, for BF and AF. Plants grown with 200 mg·L^-1 N in AF contained highest tissue contents of N, P, and K, at 3.78, 0.33, 8.39%, respectively, while plants grown with 200 mg·L^-1 N in BF contained highest tissue contents of Ca (0.37%) and Mg (0.34%) on a dry weight basis.