The Potential Use of Vermicompost in Soilless Culture for Producing Strawberry

The need for recycling organic wastes should be one of the priorities of urban as well as rural regions under the climate change impacts to minimize the consumption of natural sources. Two studies were conducted out during two successive winter seasons at the Central Laboratory for Agricultural Climate (CLAC), Giza, Egypt. The first study (2011/2012 and 2012/2013) was to investigate the effect of vermicompost as an alternative organic substrate mixed with different mineral substrate perlite, vermiculite and sand (20 : 80% v/v) compared to peat moss + perlite (50 : 50% v/v) combined with different sources of nutrient solutions (vermicompost-tea, compost-tea and chemical) on the growth and yield of strawberry. Improving the physical and chemical properties of substrates (Sand and perlite) by vermicompost investigated in the second study (2012/2013 and 2013/2014) by mixing vermicompost with sand and perlite instead of peat moss in different proportions of 15:85, 30:70 and 45:55%(v/v) respectively compared to sand 100% and perlite 100%. Strawberry cv., Sweet charley and Festival F1 hybrid were cultivated under unheated plastic house and low tunnels in the first and second experiments respectively.

The obtained data of the first study revealed that chemical nutrient solution recorded the highest values of vegetative, yield (337 and 359 g/plant) and quality characteristics of strawberry, while using vermicompost as a substrate mix combined with different substrates had a positive significant effect compared to control. Vermicompost + sand followed by vermicompost + vermiculite recorded the highest results of vegetative, yield (327 and 356 - 329 and 346 g/plant) respectively and quality characteristics of strawberry.

The second experiment illustrated that increasing the vermicompost rate had a negative significant impacts on growth and yield of strawberry. In general the substrate mixture of vermicompost + sand (15: 85%) gave the highest growth, yield (552 and 585 g/plant), quality and chemical contents. Also, vermicompost with sand mixtures generally recorded the highest yield compared to the vermicompost with perlite mixtures.