EVALUATION OF THREE STRAWBERRY CULTIVARS UNDER OPEN FIELD CONDITION AND THE EFFECT OF ORGANIC FERTILIZERS ON ESTABLISISHMENT OF SEEDLINGS UNDER COOLED PLASTIC HOUSE .

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to evaluate three strawberry cultivars for their adaptability to Khartoum State conditions as well as to study the effect of organic fertilizers on seedlings establishment and vegetative growth. The vegetative and reproductive parameters of the three strawberry cultivars; Sweet Charlie, Chandler and Selva were evaluated over two growing seasons of 2002and 2003. In the first experiment three strawberry cvs (Sweet Charlie, Chandler and Selva )were tested under field condition and their vegetative and crop production parameters were evaluated. Sweet Charlie flowered earlier (26 and 37days) while Selva was relatively a late cultivar (43 and 57days) and Chandler was intermediate cultivar (34 and 43days) for the two seasons, respectively. Chandler over -yielded the other two cultivars giving (30 and 32g) fruits per plant as well as the highest fruit weight (12. 9 and 15.1 g) compared to Sweet Charlie and Selva and consequently giving the highest yield /ha (14.6 and 24.2 ton/ha), respectively. Chandler also recorded highest fruit juice content (44.4%). Selva fruits were high is fiber content. The three cultivars resulted in comparable number of crowns per plant, shoot /root ratio, total soluble solids and fruit pH. Cultivar Chandler suffered more from spider mites damage. Fruits of Sweet Charlie were more firm and with better flavour scoring 7 and 9, respectively. But Selva scored the best fruit texture and appearance, 8 and 6.5, respectively. In the second experiment seedlings of the cv sweet Charlie were grown on the different growing media(Goureira ,chicken and mixed compost) to evaluate the effect of the media and their growth was evaluated. Mixed compost containing 1:1sand:silt plus chicken manure (19 m3/ha) and farm yard manure ( 28 m3/ha ) proved to be the best planting media for establishment of strawberry plantlets compared to chicken compost (19m3/ha) and pure sand and silt. The highest number of leaves (18.3), number of runners (15.3 and 17.7) and shoot length (16.7and 25.3) was obtained under mixed compost media. Roots were longer under soil media lacking organic fertilizers. The three soil media resulted in similar shoot /root ratio