Investigating the effect of different soilless substrates on strawberry productivity and fruit composition

Abstract

The effect of different soiless substrates (viz. agrotextile, coir fibre, perlite and rock wool) on strawberry productivity and fruit composition of three strawberry cultivars (‘Camarosa’, ‘Candonga’ and ‘Festival’) was investigated. Plant productivity and berry composition was mainly affected by differences between cultivars rather than by the nature of the different growing substrates. However, regardless of the cultivar, plants grown on agrotextile-type substrate produced significantly more fruit (1018.2 g plant−1) than those grown in other substrates (average 892.3 g plant−1). In addition, accompanying greater fruit production, fruit from plants grown on agrotextile generally had the lowest concentrations of the main strawberry anthocyanins perlargonidin-3-glucoside (0.74-fold) and pelargonidin derivative 1 (0.85-fold). Nor sugars, organic acids or any other health-related compounds were significantly affected by the nature of the soilless substrate. Overall, the present study demonstrates that despite some minor differences in fruit yield and the health-related composition of fruit grown on agrotextile, a number of different substrates with different physico-chemical characteristics may be employed during soilless cultivation of strawberry fruit without detrimentally affecting final fruit quality.