Influence of various root media in pot growth of ‘Seolhyang’ strawberry on the growth of daughter plants and early yield after transplant

Abstract

The objective of this research was to investigate the influence of various root media on the growth of mother and daughter plants during propagation and early yield after transplanting of ‘Seolhyang’ strawberry. To achieve this, daughter plants were fixed to connected small pots that contained expanded rice-hull (ERH), a strawberry-specialized commercial medium (SSCM), soil mother materials (SMM), or loamy sand (LS). Then, growth of daughter plants in above- and below-ground tissue as well as early yield after transplanting to plastic house soil were investigated. The growth of daughter plants in terms of plant height, leaf area and fresh weight were the highest in the SSCM treatment. Root growth in terms of the amount of primary roots and root dry weight were the highest in the treatments of ERH and SMM and the lowest in that of SSCM, among treatments tested. The ERH treatment also showed the highest values among treatments in root length, surface area and volume when roots with 0 to 0.4 mm in diameter were investigated. The flower bud differentiation of daughter plants began on Sept. 3 in the ERH treatments, earlier than the SMM (Sept. 5) and in SSCM (Sept. 7) treatments. The tissue N contents of daughter plants were in the range of 1.41 to 1.55% in all treatments, and no significant differences were observed among treatments. This indicates that the low moisture retention capacity of ERH and water stress, rather than tissue N contents, promote the flower differentiation of daughter plants. In the evaluation of early yield after transplant, the ERH treatment of showed the highest yield in the period from November to December, reaching 667 g fruit weight per 10 plants. The yields per 10 plants in the other treatments were 581 g in SMM, 475 g in SSCM and 295 g in LS. Above results imply that the various root media have different effects on the growth of daughter plants as well as flower bud differentiation. Therefore, improvement in early yield after transplant can be achieved through selection of proper root medium for daughter plant propagation.