Developing substrate culture strategies for the production of day-neutral strawberries

Cultivation of strawberries in artificial substrates has the potential to increase yield, fruit quality, and reduce the disease pressure substantially. Also, selecting the appropriate substrate is a key factor that affects production in protected cultivation of strawberries. Trials were established at the Simcoe Research Station, Ontario, Canada, to compare different substrates. In the first trial, five substrates were used, including the Simcoe substrate (SRS), three commercial substrates (G10, G5 and N7) and field sand. Given that the three commercial substrates performed better than Simcoe substrate or field sand these growing media were used in subsequent trials. Among commercial substrates, plants growing in G10 had fibrous root growth and higher vegetative growth. G9 and G6 are other mixes that have been used in the trials. Commercial substrates are performing equally well. The commercial substrates that ranked the highest in four key traits (drainage, aeration, water retention and gas diffusion) produced the highest vegetative growth and fruit yield for day-neutral strawberries.