Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
a favorable soil environment for enhanced root/shoot growth & the nutrient uptake
by Strawberry. Higher yield under mulch treatments may be ascribed to its favorable
effects on weed control.
Drip irrigation with polythene mulch gave signifi cantly highest yield (5010 kg ha
-
1
) as compared to surface irrigation in an nonmulched condition (4015 kg ha
-1
= 5.01 t
ha
-1
), however, the yield under paddy straw (4590 kg ha
-1
) and nonmulched (4207 kg
ha
-1
) was next in order to drip with polythene mulch but were signifi cantly at par
among themselves. When calculated the percentage increase the drip with polythene
mulch gave 25% higher yield than surface with nonmulched condition. The use of
black polythene mulch in strawberry has been reported to control the weed incidence,
reduce nutrient losses and improves the hydro-thermal regime of soil. Strawberry, be-
ing a shallow rooted plant requires more frequent but less amount of water for each
irrigation, which can be accomplished more effi ciently through drip system. Polythene
especially black polythene mulch contributed signifi cantly to control leaf spot disease.
Higher yield under mulch treatments may be ascribed to its favorable effects on weed
control. Quality fruits were harvested due to infestation free crop. Result shows that
there was 85% weed control was achieved under black polythene mulch as compare
to weedy check plot. Mulching could save precious laborer as it requires frequent
weeding @ 15 days interval during the growing season. Considering the additional
cost of inputs and the selling price of the quality produce, the polythene mulch with
drip irrigation may be recommended to the more progressive farmers for cultivation of
strawberry in Bihar. However, grass mulch can also be used to make technology more
resource crunched farmer friendly intervention for cultivation of strawberry especially
under Bihar socioeconomic condition. The corresponding values for water savings and
increase in yield for Strawberry were 51 and 19%, respectively.
• The results further document that irrigation requirement of Strawberry can be
met effectively by operating the drip system having discharge rate of 4 L/hr.
biweekly during the growing season.
17.3.2 STRAWBERRY RUNNER PRODUCTION
Drip irrigation without mulch and with paddy straw mulch significantly increased the
runner production. However, with drip plus BP mulch it was reduced significantly
compared with surface irrigation (Table 1). Since the black polythene could not pro-
vide an anchor for the roots of the new runners, this impeded their production. It is
therefore, suggested that after crop harvest, black polythene be removed to provide
favorable soil environment for higher runner production.
17.3.3 QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS
Maximum fruit weight (8.39 g/fruit) was recorded under drip plus paddy straw treat-
ment. It may be attributed to the fact that under paddy straw treatment, number of
flowers and fruits was less than those under BP mulch [5]. Drip plus paddy straw pro-
duced fruit with higher TSS/acidity ratio. In Strawberry, drip irrigation without mulch
increased the fruit weight by about 6% over surface irrigation and when coupled with
paddy straw and BP, the corresponding increase was 32 and 16%, respectively, (Table
1).
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