Effect of new organic fertilizers on growth of strawberry cv. Elsanta Preliminary results.

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1 Effect of new orgnic fertilizers on growth of strwberry cv. Elsnt Preliminry results. Abstrct E. Mlus 1,2, L. Ss-Pszt 1, J. Ciesielsk 1 Vegettively propgted plnts of the strwberry cultivr Elsnt were grown for 12 weeks in rhizoboxes filled with minerl soil. Two orgnic fertilizers ( plnt extrct nd compost extrct) nd n inoculum of soil beneficil microrgnisms dded to dry mnure were compred to n untreted (not fertilized) control nd to stndrd N-P-K fertiliztion. Plnts treted with the orgnic fertilizers showed similr shoot biomss production, bout 50% higher in comprison to control. The incresed biomss production ws due to incresed lef re since the number of leves per plnt did not show ny difference between the orgnic fertilizers nd the untreted control. Crbon lloction to produce root biomss ws similr for plnts treted with ll the orgnic fertilizers nd significntly higher in comprison to roots of control plnts. A modifiction of the root morphology in orgniclly fertilized plnts ws visully evident nd ws reflected in higher totl root length nd higher number of root tips in comprison to chemiclly fertilized plnts. A different growth behvior mong the plnts treted with the orgnic fertilizers ws found, but cn be considered equilibrted in ll cses The use of the orgnic fertilizers, even though contining low mount of minerl nutrients, llowed the growth of the strwberry plnts t level comprble to tht of chemiclly fertilized plnts. Keywords: orgnic fertiliztion, root structures, strwberry Introduction Orgnic frming is considered n importnt fctor of the Polish nd EU strtegy for the development of the griculturl sector nd the production of orgnic fruits is incresing in the lst yers (Anon. 2007). However, the limited vilbility of clssicl orgnic fertilizers (i.e. mnure) lso in not specilized frms, nd scrce informtion bout the effects of new kinds of orgnic fertilizers like plnt extrcts (Ss-Pszt et l. 2007) or microbil inocul (Mlus et l. 2007) re serious bottlenecks thretening the future development of the sector. The im of the study, crried out within the frmework of project intended to develop new products nd technologies for orgnic fruit production in Polnd, ws to evlute the effect of new orgnic fertilizers obtined from different sources on the growth of strwberry plnts. Mterils nd Methods Frigo-plnts of strwberry cultivr Elsnt were grown in greenhouse for 12 weeks in rhizoboxes filled with 1.85 kg of podsolic soil collected from n uncultivted field of the experimentl orgnic orchrd of the Reserch Institute of Pomology nd Floriculture. Its min chrcteristics were: ph 5, orgnic mtter content 1.5%; P content 51 mg P kg -1, K content 158 mg K kg Eligio Mlus Reserch Institute of Pomology nd Floriculture, Skierniewice, Polnd; 2 CRA-Center for Plnt Soil System, Turin, Itly mlus@inrete.it 1 Lidi Ss-Pszt Reserch Institute of Pomology nd Floriculture, Skierniewice, Polnd lss@insd.pl 1 Jolnt Ciesielsk Reserch Institute of Pomology nd Floriculture, Skierniewice, Polnd jwc@inrete.it

2 Four tretments were compred to untreted (not fertilized) plnts: ) stndrd NPK soil fertiliztion: 4 g NH 4 NO 3 *plnt -1, 3 g triple-superfosfte*plnt -1 nd 6 g K 2 SO 4 *plnt -1. b) mixture of beneficil fungi nd bcteri (Micost, CCS Aost s.r.l.) contining: - spores, hyphe nd root frgments colonized by AM fungi of five Glomus species (G. mossee Txter sensu Gerd. & Trppe, G. intrrdices Schenk & Smith, G. cledonium (Nicolson et Gerdemnn) Trppe et Gerdemnn, G. viscosum Nicolson nd G. corontur Giovnnetti), - Trichoderm viride Pers. - three rhizosphere bcteri species (Bcillus subtilis, Pseudomons fluorescens, Streptomyces spp.) with totl concentrtion of 10 6 cells g -1 of substrte. The product contins 40% C, 0.15% N, 431 mg*kg -1 P nd 9558 mg*kg -1 K. It ws pplied t plnting to the soil ner the root system (10 g*plnt -1 ) nd thn three times during the growing period (ech ppliction with 5 g*plnt -1 ). c) n extrct from vermicompost (Humus UP, Ekodrpol), contining 0.65% C, 0.03% N, 30.8 mg*kg -1 P nd 4535 mg*kg -1 K. The product ws pplied to the soil t plnting s 2% solution (15 ml*plnt -1 ) nd thn three times during the growing period (1% solution, 15 ml*plnt -1 ). d) n extrct from severl seweed species reinforced with humic nd fulvic cids (BioFeed Qulity, Agrobio Products B.V.), contining 0.6% C, 0.07% N, 32.6 mg*kg -1 P. The product ws pplied to the plnts five times during the growth period s 0.5% solution (25 ml*plnt -1 ). The plnts treted with the microorgnisms inoculum nd the seweed extrct received before plnting bsic soil fertiliztion (12 g*plnt -1 ) with dry mnure (contining 1% N, 0.3% P nd 1% K). The totl mount of minerl nutrients pplied for ech tretment is shown in Tble 1. Ech tretment ws pplied to 10 plnts grown in 5 rhizoboxes plced on completely rndomized design. At the end of the growing period dry biomss ws determined seprtely for roots nd shoots. Root growth prmeters (totl root length, root dimeter nd totl number of root tips) were mesured by n imge nlysis system with Hewlett Pckrd scnner, controlled by WinRhizo softwre (Regent Instruments Inc.). The results were sttisticlly evluted by nlysis of vrince nd comprison of mens ws done t P 0.05 with the Newmn-Keuls test. Tb. 1: Equivlent mount of minerl elements pplied per hectr with the different tretments (kg). N P K Control NPK Micost Humus UP <0.1 <0.1 <0.2 BF Qulity Results Plnts treted with the orgnic fertilizers showed shoot biomss production similr to the chemiclly fertilized plnts (Tb. 2). Fertilized plnts hd bout 50% higher shoot biomss

3 production in comprison to control. The incresed biomss production in the fertilized plnts ws not due to higher number of leves per plnt since it ws on verge 13 for ll tretments nd control plnts (Tb. 2). Root biomss ws bout two to three fold higher in fertilized plnts with respect to untreted control plnts (Tb. 3). The totl root length ws similr in plnts treted with the orgnic products nd the untreted control plnts, but more thn two-fold higher in comprison to chemiclly fertilized plnts. The number of root tips ws lso similr between the plnts receiving the orgnic fertilizers nd the control, which hd more thn twice tips with respect to NPK treted plnts (Tb. 3). No differences were found s regrd the dimeter of the roots between the fertilized nd control plnts nor between the different kinds of fertilizers (Tb. 3). A different growth behvior ws observed between plnts treted with the inoculum nd the vermicompost extrct in comprison to the control nd the other fertilizers. In the former tretments the shoot/root rtio ws bout 1, while it ws round 1.5 for the control, nd NPK nd seweed extrct tretments (Fig. 1). The specific root length ws similr to control in ll fertilized plnts except those treted with the vermicompost extrct (Fig. 1b). Tb. 2: Shoot dry weight nd number of leves of strwberry plnts cv. Elsnt grown under different fertiliztion mngement: not fertilized (Control), chemicl stndrd fertilizer (NPK) nd three different orgnic fertilizers. Mens ± SEM, letters show significnt difference for P<0.05. D.W. Lef Number (g) Control 3.54 ± ± 1.5 NPK 5.05 ± 0.6 b 13.0 ± 2.0 Micost 5.89 ± 0.7 b 13.0 ± 0.6 Humus UP 5.89 ± 0.7 b 11.3 ± 2.1 BF Qulity 5.89 ± 0.7 b 14.0 ± 2.6 Tb. 3: Root growth prmeters of strwberry plnts cv. Elsnt grown under different fertiliztion mngement: not fertilized (Control), chemicl stndrd fertilizer (NPK) nd three different orgnic fertilizers. Mens ± SEM, letters show significnt difference for P<0.05. D.W. (g) Totl Root Length (m) Root Dimeter (mm) Root Tips Number Control 0.9 ± ± 3.1 b 0.67 ± ± 788 NPK 2.27 ± 0.1 b 13.5 ± ± ± 585 b Micost 2.73 ± 0.2 b 33.2 ± 3.7 b 0.64 ± ± 858 Humus UP 2.63 ± 0.3 b 29.4 ± 5.4 b 0.65 ± ± 735 BF Qulity 1.77 ± 0.2 b 33.2 ± 2.4 b 0.61 ± ± 1041

4 A B b b cm*g b Control NPK Micost Humus UP BF Qulity 0 Control NPK Micost Humus UP BF Qulity Fig. 1: Shoot/root rtio () nd specific root length (b) of strwberry plnts cv. Elsnt grown under different fertiliztion mngement: not fertilized (Control), chemicl stndrd fertilizer (NPK) nd three different orgnic fertilizers. Verticl brs represent SEM, letters show significnt difference for P<0.05. Discussion nd Conclusions The ppliction of the orgnic fertilizers produced from different sources nd the inoculum of different beneficil microorgnisms llowed obtining growth of the strwberry plnts similr to tht of plnts fertilized with stndrd synthetic fertilizer. It must be underlined tht the mount of the mcronutrients provided with the orgnic fertilizers is severl fold lower thn tht pplied with the chemicl fertilizer. However, the orgnic substnces present in the vermicompost nd seweed extrct s well s the growth promotion ctivity of the rhizosphere beneficil microorgnisms could sustin the growth of the strwberry plnts. The crbon lloction between shoots nd roots of the chemicl fertilizer nd of the seweed extrct ws similr to untreted plnts, with the mjority of the plnt biomss represented by lef tissues, while more equilibrted shoot/root rtio ws shown by the inoculted nd compost treted plnts (Fig. 1). Appliction of vermicompost on strwberries resulted in incresed of up to 37% in lef re nd 37% in plnt shoot biomss nd the effect ws confirmed lso by higher yield performnce (Arncon et l. 2004). The morphologicl structure of the root system ws similr in ll plnts treted with orgnic products or growing into the untreted soil. Plnts grown under chemicl fertiliztion produced shorter nd less brnched roots thn orgniclly fertilized plnts. Nevertheless, the dimeter of the roots ws not ffected by the kind of fertilizer. The overll differences in root morphology cn ccount, t lest prtilly, for the good plnt growth found even with limited minerl nutrients provided by the orgnic fertilizers. This result could be due to better exploittion of the resources in the soil nd of the higher soil microbil ctivity found t the end of the tril (Gùuszek pers. comm.). There is gret vribility in the nitrogen vilbility from different sources of orgnic fertilizers (Png nd Letey 2000). The repeted ppliction of the orgnic fertilizers during the growth period could increse their efficcy due to lower leching of N minerlized. Incubtion studies with n rry of orgnic fertilizers hd shown tht for seweed extrct the N vilbility ws stedy for period of 6 weeks, with nerly 50% of the nitrogen contined in the fertilizer becoming vilble for the plnts, higher mount in comprison to the other orgnic fertilizers (Stutterheim pers. com.). It is known tht the timing in supplying nitrogen to berry crops is criticl for buds nd fruit set, nd the nitrogen

5 relese rtes for orgnic fertilizers my not mtch the nitrogen needs of the crop. Field trils re undergone to verify these preliminry results which would suggest tht the tested products re fesible orgnic fertilizers for strwberry production. Acknowledgment The work hs been supported by grnt from the EU Regionl Development Fund through the Polish Innovtion Economy Opertionl Progrm, contrct N. UDA- POIG /08-00 References Anonymous (2007). Action Pln for Orgnic Food nd Agriculture in Polnd for the yers Ministry of Agriculture nd Rurl Development, Wrsw, Polnd. Arncon, N. Q., Edwrds, C. A., Biermn, P., Welch, C., Metzger, J. D. (2004). Influences of vermicomposts on field strwberries: 1. Effects on growth nd yields. Bioresource Technology 93: Mlus, E., Ss Pszt, L., Popiñsk, W., Ýurwicz, E. (2007). The effect of substrte contining rbusculr mycorrhizl fungi nd rhizosphere microorgnisms (Trichoderm, Bcillus, Pseudomons nd Streptomons) nd folir fertiliztion on growth response nd rhizosphere ph of three strwberry cultivrs. Intern. J. Fruit Science 6: Png, X. P. nd Letey, J. (2000). Orgnic frming: chllenge of timing nitrogen vilbility to crop nitrogen requirements. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 64: Ss Pszt, L., Ýurwicz, E., Filipczk, J., Gùuszek, S. (2007). Rol rizosfery w od ywiniu roœlin truskwki. Postêpy Nuk Rolniczych 6:27-36.