147

1. Introduction

The Strawberry (Fragaria X annanassa Duch.), a 
member of the rose family, is not really a berry but a 
false fruit and consists of many tiny individual fruits em-
bedded in a fleshy scarlet receptacle. The brownish or 
whitish specks, commonly considered seeds, are the true 
fruits known as achenes. Strawberries are an excellent 
source of vitamin C, a good source of folate and potas-
sium, and are relatively low in calories. Strawberry is one 
of the most widely appreciated fruits and it has attained 
a premier position in the fresh fruit market and process-
ing industries of the world (Sharma and Sharma, 2003). 
Initially grown in temperate zones of India, its cultivation 
has now become possible in the sub-tropical zones as 
well with the introduction of day neutral cultivars (Asrey 
and Singh, 2004). Strawberry offers quicker returns on 

capital outlay than any other fruit crop since under spe-
cial methods of cultivation a crop can be picked as early 
as the first summer after planting. The fruit is the first 
of the home-grown supplies to reach the market. Straw-
berry is one of the most important high value cash crops 
around the world. In India, it is cultivated commercially 
in Hamachal Pradesh, Utter Pradesh, Maharashtra, West 
Bengal, Nilgiri Hills, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan 
and Jammu and Kashmir. Its cultivation can be extended 
successfully to other suitable areas of the world where 
irrigation and transportation facilities can be assured. 
Strawberry is an attractive, luscious, tasty and nutritious 
fruit with a distinct and pleasant aroma and flavor. It has a 
unique place among cultivated berry fruits in world. Rich 
in vitamin C and iron, the principal demand for cultivated 
strawberry is from the processing and baking industries 
around the world as suggested by Childs (1937) that the 
strawberry is a delectable fruit that is highly prized by 
almost everyone.

Impact of integrated nutrient management on
growth, yield and quality of strawberry (Fragaria x 

annanassa Duch.) cultivation in India

Rayees A. Wani*(1), Sunam Sheema**, T.H. Malik**, Seerat Geelani*, Sabiya Bashir*, N.A. Dar*, 
V. M. Prasad***
*  Department of Horticulture, Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture Technology and Science, 

Allahabad, U.P. 211007, India. 

**  Department of Agriculture Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India.
***  Department of Horticulture SHIATS Allahabad.
(1) Present address: Dry land Agriculture research station Budgam, SKUAST-K Srinagar, Kashmir India.

Key words: inorganic fertilizers, integrated nutrient management, organic fertilizers, strawberry. 

Abstract: Modern agricultural practices are mostly directed toward high application of commercial fertilizers to achieve 
high yield. It is widely recognized that application of fertilizer (especially nitrogen) can cause ground water pollution by 
nitrate leaching through the soil profile. A new approach to farming is often referred to as sustainable agriculture and it 
seeks to introduce friendlier agricultural practices to the environment and maintains the long term ecological balance of 
the soil ecosystem. Hence investigations were carried out to develop nutrient management for strawberry cultivar Sweet 
Charley subjected to various treatment combinations of organic and inorganic fertilizers. Traits such as plant growth 
characteristics (leaves/plant and plant spread), yield characteristics (flower buds, fruits per plant and fruit yield tons/ha) 
and quality characteristics (juice content, total sugar content, vitamin C and specific gravity) were observed. The runners 
of strawberry cv. Sweet Charley were planted in the first week of November with a spacing of 30 x 60 cm. The investiga-
tion was laid out in a randomized block design with five treatment combinations replicated thrice. The data regarding the 
different growth parameters observed at 30, 45, 60, 90, 105, 120, yield parameters at 45, 60, 90, 120, 135, 150 days after 
planting and their quality parameters clearly indicate that the application of integrated sources of nutrients significantly 
affect the vegetative, reproductive and yield characteristics of the strawberry plant. However the manure fertilizer com-
bination under treatment T4 (75% Organic Fertilizers + 25% inorganic Fertilizers) was found to be the best treatment 
with regard to integrated and combined application of nutrient resources for strawberry cultivation in India.

Adv. Hort. Sci., 2013 27(4): 147-151

Received for publication 16 November 2013
Accepted for publication 30 December 2013



148

Among the various factors which contribute towards 
the growth, yield and quality of strawberry, nutrition is 
the most important and it has direct bearing on crop pro-
duction (Umar et al., 2008). Integrated nutrient manage-
ment includes the use of inorganic and organic sources 
of nutrients to ensure balanced nutrient proportions by 
enhancing nutrient response efficiency and maximizing 
crop productivity of desired quality. It also helps to mini-
mize the existing gap between nutrient removal through 
continuous use of chemical fertilizers and supply through 
slow release of fertilizers. It is widely reported that the 
extensive use of chemical fertilizers adversely affects 
soil health and results in decreased crop productivity and 
quality (Macit et al., 2007). Even with the application 
of recommended doses, yield potential of strawberry 
cropping systems has reduced to a plateau because soil 
health has deteriorated drastically and especially its or-
ganic matter content has depleted significantly. As inten-
sive agriculture is becoming more and more necessary to 
meet the needs of the population, the soil nutrient bal-
ance is becoming increasingly negative and thus requir-
ing appropriate supplement through integrated nutrient 
management. The use of organic and inorganic nutrient 
sources not only helps to increase crop yields but also 
helps to storehouse nutrients for successive crops in addi-
tion to improving the physical condition of the soil. Bio-
organic nutrition also improves the yield and quality of 
product. Organically produced fruit fetches higher prices 
compared to products grown using inorganic fertiliza-
tion. The practical approach will be organic farming to 
the most responsive fruit crops and to encourage inte-
grated nutrient supply for tapping the potential yield of 
crops. As reported by Hennion et al. (1999), “strawberry 
cultivation is highly nutrition responsive” and therefore 
the present experiment was undertaken to manage the 
growth, yield and quality of strawberry through an inte-
grated approach.

2. Materials and Methods

The present investigation was carried out at experi-
mental fields of the horticulture department SHIATS, Al-
lahabad during spring season 2009-10. The experimental 
field is located at an elevation of 78 m above sea level and 
latitude 81.15o E and longitude 28.87 o N. The soil of the 
experimental field was sandy loam in texture, poor in nitro-
gen (0.24%), comparatively richer in potassium (0.57%) 
and phosphorus (0.62%) and slightly acidic (pH=6.60) in 
nature.

The strawberry (cv. Sweet Charley) was procured from 
Wimco seedling Ltd, Baghwale Rudrapur (U.S.N) Uttar 
Pradesh, India. The experiment was comprised of the fol-
lowing five treatment combinations: 

1. 100% recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers 
+0% recommended dose of manures (T

1
); 

2. 5% recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers + 
25% recommended dose of manures (T

2
); 

3. 50% recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers + 
50% recommended dose of manures (T

3
); 

4. 25% recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers 
+75% recommended dose of manures (T

4
);

5. 0% Recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers + 
100% recommended dose of manures (T

5
).

The manures used in this experiment were farmyard 
manure and forest litter. The experiment was laid out in 
a Randomized Block Design with four replications. The 
observations recorded were on growth parameters (leaves/
plant and plant spread), yield characteristics (flower buds, 
fruits per plant and fruit yield tons/ha) and quality char-
acteristics (juice content, total sugar content, total soluble 
solids, vitamin C, pH and specific gravity).

3. Results and Discussion

All the treatments in the present investigation had sig-
nificant impact for all observed traits. However, treatments 
differed significantly from one another at various time in-
tervals (Tables 1 and 2; figures 1-8). The highest vegeta-
tive growth (15.25 mean leaves/plant and 21.50 cm mean 
plant spread) was recorded for treatment T

4
. Observations 

revealed that plant spread and leaves/plant coincided with 
peak flower buds/plant, which within one month produced 
the highest fruits/plant. Afterwards production declined 
drastically and fewer fruits/plant were produced towards 
the lag end of growth (i.e. mid April).

Overall, treatment T
4 
which contained a greater amount 

of organic manures and less inorganic fertilizers was 
judged superior to the other treatments. This treatment 
showed 45.61% superiority over treatments T

5
 and T

1
 

(control) in average leaves/plant and 61.53% superiority 
over T

1
 in average plant spread/plant. Recently it was re-

vealed that available NPK and micronutrients increased 
significantly with organic sources of nutrients either alone 
or in combination with inorganic fertilizers over inorganic 
fertilizers used alone, thus improving vegetative growth. 
Similar results were also reported by Klaas (2000), Funt 
and Blerman (2000), Prasad et al. (2002), Gajbhiye et 
al. (2003), Arancon et al. (2004) and Singh and Dwivedi 
(2011). Hence, taking these findings as reference, straw-
berry cv. Sweet Charley responded positively to the ma-
nure and fertilizer combination applied in treatment T

4
.

Eight pickings were carried out starting from 60 days 
after planting to 150 days after planting (i.e. from end of 
December to mid April). Treatment T

4
 produced 2.5 mean 

flower buds/plant more than T
1
 (control) whereas in the 

number of fruits/plant, treatment T
4
 produced 5.75 aver-

age number of fruits more than treatment T
1 
with greater 

length/diameter ratio of 1.43, compared to 1.25 for treat-
ment T

1
. Thus, treatment T

4
 showed 61.53%, 80.95% and 

14.4% superiority over treatment T
1
 in average flower 

buds/plant, average number of fruits per plant and length/
diameter ratio of fruits, respectively. Also fruit yield per 
plant was highest (482.6 g/plant=26.81 tons/ha) with treat-
ment T

4
 and lowest with treatment T

5 
(351.5 g/plant=19.55 



149

tons/ha); treatment T
4
 showed 37.14% superiority over 

treatment T
5
 in fruit yield tons/ha. Kopanski and Kawecki 

(1994), Gajbhiye et al. (2003), Asrey and Singh (2004), 
Umar et al. (2008), Singh and Singh (2009), Singh et al. 
(2010) and Yadav et al. (2010) all reported the superiority 
of organic manures compared to NPK inorganic fertilizers 
in producing higher yields. The superiority of treatment 
T

4
 in producing a maximum number of fruits/plant may 

be due to a greater growth and reproductive capacity of 
plants as influenced by a mixture of manures and inor-
ganic fertilizers applied in treatment. As far as fruit qual-
ity parameters are concerned, treatment T

4 
showed overall 

significant superiority to treatments T
1
 and T

5
. The juice 

content of fruits increased with increasing manure content 
and decreasing NPK inorganic fertilizer content although 
reduced slightly when manures were used alone (Table 2; 

Table 1 -  Impact of integrated nutrient management on growth and development of strawberry cv. Sweet Charley in India

Treatments Average leaf size/plant Average plant spread (cm)
Average flower buds per 

plant
Average fruits per plant

Days after transplanting Days after transplanting Days after transplanting Days after transplanting

30 45 60 90 120 30 45 60 90 105 45 60 90 120 135 60 90 120 135 150

T
1

3.25 3.50 4.25 6.75 10.75 9.25 11.25 11.75 14.75 14.25 1.0 2.00 2.25 3.25 3.25 1.25 3.00                                                                                                                                3.75 4.5 5.25

T
2

3.75 4.25 4.50 7.25 11.25 9.5 11.25 12.00 15.25 15.00 0.75 2.00 2.50 4.00 4.0 1.00 3.50 4.50 5.25 5.75

T
3

4.25 4.50 5.00 7.50 11.75 10.0 11.75 12.50 15.75 15.50 1.0 2.00 2.00 4.50 4.5 1.00 3.75 5.25 5.75 6.50

T
4

5.75 6.00 7.75 11.2515.25 11.0 13.0 16.25 21.50 20.75 1.25 3.00 3.75 5.25 5.25 1.75 4.00 8.00 9.0 9.50

T
5

3 3.50 4.00 6.50 10.75 9.0 11.25 11.50 14.75 14.50 1.0 2.25 1.75 3.75 3.75 0.50 3.25 3.75 4.0 6.25

SE± 0.97 0.91 1.36 1.73 1.69 0.70 0.67 1.89 2.57 2.41 0.37 0.40 0.69 0.55 0.68 0.63 0.35 1.57 1.75 1.48

C.D at 5% 0.66 0.39 0.78 0.55 0.55 0.48 0.77 0.50 0.57 0.57 0.55 0.55 0.10 1.52 0.71 0.67 0.98 1.14 2.43 2.15

Table 2 -  Impact of integrated nutrient management on yield and quality characteristics of strawberry cv. Sweet Charley in India

Treatments
Length/

diameter ratio 
of fruits

Total 
fruits/
plant

Fruit yield
tonnes /ha

Juice
content

(%)

Acidity
content

(%)

TSS
0B

Total
sugar
(%)

Ascorbic
acid content 
(mg/100 g)

pH
Specific
gravity

T
1

1.25 23.75 21.13 82.10 0.16 9.00 13.50 35.55 3.01 0.80

T
2

1.30 25.25 22.53 84.50 0.15 10.00 14.25 38.56 2.96 1.00

T
3

1.35 27.75 24.93 89.10 0.14 11.00 14.95 42.74 2.91 1.10

T
4

1.43 29.50 26.81 93.20 0.12 13.00 15.00 49.78 2.87 1.30

T
5

1.26 24.50 19.55 91.40 0.11 14.00 15.25 53.60 2.81 0.90

SE± 0.06 2.14  2.60 4.16 0.019 1.85 0.63 6.75 0.06 0.17

C.D at 5% 1.17 5.55 9.08 19.54 0.48 7.40 4.09 7.32 1.01 0.84

Fig. 1 -  Effect of different integrated nutrient management on yield 
(tons/ha) of strawberry cv. Sweet Charley in India.

Fig. 2 -  Effect of different integrated nutrient management on T.S.S. 
(°B) of strawberry cv. Sweet Charley in India.



150

Fig. 6 -  Effect of different integrated nutrient management on acidity 
(%) of strawberry cv. Sweet Charley in India.

Fig. 4 -  Effect of different integrated nutrient management on vitamin C 
(mg/100 g) of strawberry cv. Sweet Charley in India.

Fig. 5 -  Effect of different integrated nutrient management on fruit juice 
(%) of strawberry cv. Sweet Charley in India.

Fig. 7 -  Effect of different integrated nutrient management on pH value 
of strawberry cv. Sweet Charley in India.

Fig. 8 -  Effect of different integrated nutrient management on specific 
gravity of strawberry cv. Sweet Charley in India.

Fig. 3 -  Effect of different integrated nutrient management on total sug-
ar (%) of strawberry cv. Sweet Charley in India.



151

Figs. 1 and 5). The maximum juice content (93.2%) was 
recorded for treatment T

4
 and the minimum (82.10%) for 

treatment T
1
. The increase in juice content may be due 

to an interactional effect of mixture of manures and in-
organic NPK applied through treatment T

4
 which might 

have improved cell elongation, cell thickening and fruit 
development, resulting in better ripening with more suc-
culent fruits. Several reports have indicated that manure 
and fertilizer combinations in strawberry have led to the 
production of softer fruits (Neuweiler, 1997; Ghaderi and 
Talaie, 2008; Singh and Singh, 2009).

The maximum TSS (14%) was found in treatment T
5
 

and the minimum (9%) in treatment T
1
, likewise total sug-

ar and vitamin C content was highest in treatment T
5
 and 

lowest in treatment T
1 
(Table 2 and figure 2, 3, 4). On the 

other hand, both acidity (%) and pH were highest in treat-
ment T

1
 and lowest in treatment T

5
 while treatment T

4
 ex-

hibited the highest specific gravity of fruits and treatment 
T

1
 the lowest, as shown in Table 2 and figures 6, 7 and 8. 

Thus strawberry cv. Sweet Charley responded negatively 
to NPK inorganic fertilizers and positively to higher ma-
nure levels under the experimental conditions of this study. 
Present findings are in close conformity with the results 
presented by Dradi and Faedi (1995), Bergamaschi et al. 
(1995), Prasad et al. (2002), Nazir et al. (2006) and Singh 
and Dwivedi (2011).

4. Conclusions

It can be concluded from the present study that an in-
tegrated nutrient management combination such as treat-
ment T

4
 (25% recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers 

+75% recommended dose of manures) is advisable for 
maximum returns from strawberry.

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Head of the department 
of horticulture and Vice Chancellor Sam Higginbottom 
Institute of Agriculture Technology and Science for their 
continuous support during this research work.

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