Biostimulants Influenced Growth And Productivity Of The Organic Strawberries

Summary

Organic strawberry production is faced with several biotic and abiotic stresses that compromise crop productivity and berry quality. In order to improve yield and berry quality, we have compared the potential beneficial effects of seven biostimulant treatments 1- control without biostimulant (CONTROL), 2- seaweed extract (SEAWEED), 3- mycorrhiza Rhizoglomus irregular (MYC), 4- mix of three bacteria, Azospirillum brasilense, Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus, and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (BACT), 5- combination of MYC+BACT, 6- MYC+BACT with a low fertilization (MYC+BACT/LF), and 7- citric acid-based (CITRIC) within a complete randomized block design with five replicates. Our results showed that some biostimulants did impact the soil relative abundance of fungi and soil CO2 efflux, while no effect was observed for the microbial activity (FDA) compared with the control. Leaf chlorophyll content and the chlorophyll fluorescence were not significantly affected by biostimulants. MYC decreased the number of flowering stalks (-18%) compared with control plants, while citric acid increased their dry root biomass (+35%). However, biostimulants did not affect the mineral content of leaves. Little effect of biostimulants on crop productivity was observed compared with control plants. However, MYC+BACT increased ºBrix (+11%), total polyphenols (+40%) and anthocyanins (+26%) of the berries compared with control. The use of a lower fertilization reduced plant growth and yield.