1Department of Fruit Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141 004, Punjab, India
2Department of Soil Science, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar-263 145, Uttarakhand, India
3Department of Fruit Science, College of Horticulture and Forestry, Jhalawar-326 023, Rajasthan, India
4ICAR-National Research Centre on Litchi, Muzaffarpur-842 002, Bihar, India
*Corresponding author: swapnilpandey.kanchan10368@gmail.com
Online published on 4 December, 2019.
An experiment was conducted comprising 16 treatments including different mulch materials viz. no mulch (M0), rice husk (M1), white polythene (M2) and black polythene (M3) under different growing environments viz. open field (T0), agro shade net (T1), naturally ventilated polyhouse (T2) and fan pad system greenhouse (T3). As regard to growth parameters, M1T2 recorded maximum crown height (29.33 cm), petiole length (20.27 cm) and fresh (235 g) and dry weight (57.28 g) of plant. However, maximum number of leaves per plant (97.44) and total chlorophyll content (3.26 mg g−1) was recorded in M2T0. Plant E-W spread and N-S spread was observed maximum (51.80 cm and 49.88 cm, respectively) in M3T2. M3T3 recorded maximum (4.0) runner production per plant. In most of the root growth parameters viz. maximum fresh weight (37.76g) and dry weight (7.32 g) of roots, root volume (45.55 cm3), number of thin (190.55) and thick (176.11) roots and root length (28.22 cm) was recorded in the treatment M3T0. However, root: shoot ratio was observed maximum (0.46) in the treatment M1T0. Based on overall performance, treatment M3T0 was found superior over all other treatments with respect to growth and development of plant and roots of strawberry.
Greenhouse, mulch, root growth, strawberry
