Effect of vermicompost on plant growth, fruit yield and quality of strawberries in irrigated arid region of northern plains

Studies were conducted to determine the effect of vermicompost (VC) on plant growth, fruit yield and quality of ‘Chandler’ strawberry. Different graded levels of vermicompost (1.25, 2.50, 3.75, 5.00, 6.25, 7.50, 8.75 and 10.0 t ha⁻¹) were supplemented with inorganic fertilizers to balance fertilizer requirement of strawberry under semiarid region of northern India. Our results revealed that with the increase in dose of VC, there was increasing trend for plant growth, yield and quality parameters of strawberry. However, vermicompost application @ 10 t ha⁻¹ increased plant spread (16.1%), leaf area (31.4%) and dry matter (17.7%), and increased total fruit yield (29.1%) over inorganic fertilizer.Fruit harvested from plant receiving vermicompost have higher TSS,ascorbic acid content and lower acidity. All these parameters were appeared dose dependent and best results were achieved @7.5 t ha⁻¹, however, beyond this dose of vermicompost, there was not significant influence on these parameters. Substitution of vermicompost drastically reduced the incidence of diseases, proportion fruits free from any physiological disorders indicating that application of vermicompost had significant role in producing healthy fruits and thereby increasing the marketable fruit yield with better quality parameters.