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Knowledge

Strawberry cultivation is a very profitable agribusiness. This type of fruit is very popular owing to its nutritional quality, color, aroma, texture, and of course, its taste. Strawberry fruit is a rich source of vitamin ‘C, Iron, Potassium, and fiber. Strawberries can be grown in a wide range of soils, from light sand to heavy clay.

The Role Of Elements

Strawberry cultivation is widely distributed all over the world. It is a vegetable crop with high economic return. This economic return increases with produce fruits with standard specifications. Potassium is one of the most important and effective in order to obtain fruits with good export specifications. The most important roles of potassium: -

  • Obtain seedlings with strong roots and vegetative growth for open filed cultivation.
  • Has an important role in order to obtain an early crop suitable for export.
  • Very important in increasing yield and fruits weight.
  • Has an important role in photosynthesis process and increases vegetative growth.
  • Increases efficiency of plant absorption of water and nutrients.
  • Increased resistance strawberry plants to fungal and insect diseases.
  • Increases plant resistance to environmental stress factors i.e. (high temperature - frost - drought – salinity).
  • Increased yield ability to transport and handling.

Strawberry is one of the most important economic and export crops. Strawberry is one of the most consumed and affected by phosphorus because it is a determining factor in increasing the productivity of the crop through:

  • Very important during nursery to give runners and a strong vegetative and roots to cultivate in open field
  • Improvement root distributions, vegetative growth and runners especially in the early stages of cultivation.
  • Improves flowering and fruit set.
  • It has an important role in improving quality specifications of the fruits and sugar content.

One of the crops was affected by calcium as it has a direct relationship in: -

  • Increase growth of the total vegetative and root in the strawberry crop.
  • Increased resistance of roots, vegetation growth and fruits to fungal and insect pathogens.
  • Increases flowering, fertilization, fruit set and yield.
  • Improve fruit quality and increase storage ability of fruits.
  • Increases weight and size of fruits.
  • Increases fruit resistance to blossom end rot.

Deficiency Symptoms

K

Potassium deficiency symptoms of strawberry crop appear on old leaves because it is mobile within the plant and deficiency symptoms appear at the begging in form of brown or brown discoloration and dryness on the upper surface of the edges of small leaves fully formed. This gradually spreads inside the blade between the veins and extends to the entire blade, but the base part remains green. The symptoms of potassium deficiency on strawberries also appear in:

  • Poor vegetative growth, plants weak and reducing number of runners.
  • Low yield and fruit quality as well as weight and size of fruits.
  • Exposure of fruits to loss and damage during transportation and handling.
  • Poor coloring and sugar content of fruits.
  • Reduced storage ability of fruits and transport and handling.

P

Phosphorus deficiency Symptoms on strawberry crop, plants appear light green color and leaves are small in size, as shown symptoms of deficiency in: -

  • Dwarfing plants during formation.
  • Low number of runners and poor growth.
  • Low flowering percentage and fruit set.
  • Small size of fruits and low quality as shown in some varieties of white fruits (albedo).

Ca

Calcium deficiency symptoms on strawberry crop appearance as a yellowish green color on young leaves in addition to: -

  • Poor root and vegetative growth.
  • Dryness of shoot tips of branch, terminal buds and roots.
  • Some physiological diseases appearance such as blossom end rot.
  • Trees become less resistant to environmental stresses.