Investigation of the Effects of Organic and Plant Culture Substrates and Silicon on Yield and Its Components in Strawberry (Fragaria ananassa) Cultivar Selva under Soilless Culture

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of culture substrate and silicon on yield and its components in strawberry cultivar Selva under soilless culture in the greenhouse of the Isfahan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center in 2019. This experiment was performed in split plots as arandomized complete block design with three replications under greenhouse conditions. The main treatment of culture substrate at four levels included 50% perlite and 50% peat moss, 70% perlite and 30% peat moss, 50% perlite, and 50% vermicompost, 70% perlite, and 30% vermicompost and sub-treatment included the application of silicon at three levels of (0, 50 and  100 mg / l) with plant nutrient solution in strawberry cultivar Selva. Evaluation of the results showed that the application of vermicompost substrate due to the increased salinity caused a significant reduction in yield and its components, but the effect of salinity on traits was different. Application of 50 mg / l of silicon caused the highest yield, total fruit number, number of leaves, chlorophyll index, vitamin C, and fresh and dry weight of roots as well as the lowest acidity of the fruit and fruitless flowers compared to the control, (by 7.01, 4.91, 6.33, 3.64, 8.87, 4.9, 9, 10.71, and 4.67% more than the treatment without application of silicon).