Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 5
C
OMPARATIVE
S
TUDY OF
B
IO
-
AND
C
HEMICAL
F
ERTILIZATION IN
S
TRAWBERRY
P
RODUCTION
Marijana Pešaković
1,
and Jasminka Milivojević
2
1
Fruit Research Institute, Čačak, Republic of Serbia,
2
University of Belgrade,
Faculty of Agriculture, Belgrade,
Republic of Serbia
A
BSTRACT
The present study illustrates the effect of biofertilizer and chemical fertilizer
applications on the microbiological properties of the soil, the yield-related characteristics,
phenolic fruit composition and antioxidant capacity of 'Clery' 'Joly' and 'Dely'
strawberries under greenhouse conditions. Plants were treated with biofertilizer (liquid
inoculum combined of
Azotobacter
,
Derxia
and
Bacillus
genera) and chemical fertilizer
(Polyfeed NPK Water Soluble Fertilizer). The microbiological properties of soil were
monitored by determining the total microbial count, numbers of soil fungi,
actinomycetes, oligonitrophilic bacteria and
Azotobacter
using indirect counting methods
involving plating out a soil suspension onto appropriate selective culture media. The
yield-related characteristics of the tested plants were evaluated for generative potential
parameters and morphometric traits. Since s
trawberry fruits are important sources of
health-related compounds, special attention was given to the total phenolics content as
well as to identified individual polyphenolic compounds, and consequently to the total
antioxidant capacity.
The results obtained suggested that application of the biofertilizer
induced the highest increase in the numbers of oligonitrophilic bacteria and
Azotobacter
,
whereas soil fungal and actinomycetes count significantly decreased. Significantly higher
values of fruit weight, length and width were obtained in the chemical fertilizer
treatment. Application of biofertilizer has given the best results in terms of anthocyanins
and
kaempferol content,
as well as the content of ellagic, gallic, and protocatechuic acids.
The positive influence of biofertilizer on the level of total phenolics and consequently on
the total antioxidant capacity was clearly expressed. Considering the biological properties
of the examined soil and fruit quality characteristics, certain amounts of mineral nitrogen
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