Abstract
The forcing culture of strawberry‘Nyoho’was carried out in a rockwool culture system using slow releasing fertilizer and the following results were obtained.
Each runner plant was raised in a cubic rockwool pot and top-dressed with 0.5 g of 70-day type of slow releasing fertilizer (Nutricote, N: P2O5: K2O=14: 12: 14) on July 20. The fertilizer was removed on August 4 after cutting out the plant from the runner. In this case, the flowerbud formation initiated on September 8. This result showed that the removal of fertilizer promoted the initiation of flower-bud formation in summer compared to retaining the fertilizer until September 8.
Eight plants raised in rockwool pots were placed on a rockwool bed on September 8 and topdressed with 140 g of 140-day type of slow releasing fertilizer. Water was supplied using irrigation tubes for a few minutes a day.
In this culture system, flower buds of the 1st cluster emerged on October 15 and bloomed on October 26. Fruits were harvested from late November, when plants were grown in an unheated plastic house. The 2nd cluster emerged from December to January. The weight of the harvested fruits from the 1st cluster was 226 g/plant (22 fruits/plant, 2.1 t/10 a) . Harvesting from the 1st cluster was almost finished around late February. Successive harvesting from the other clusters was done and the weight of the total yield was 582 g/plant (54 fruits/plant, 4.7 t/10 a) until the end of May and the adequate yield was obtained.
The rockwool culture system was simplified using the slow releasing fertilizer, and it is expected that soilborne diseases can be prevented and labor efficiency can be increased.
