ANIMAL PROTEIN HYDROLYSATE AS A BIOSTIMULANT FOR TRANSPLANTED STRAWBERRY PLANTS SUBJECTED TO COLD STRESS

Transplanting causes stress to plants, especially at low ambient temperatures. The application of enzymatic hydrolysates obtained from animal haemoglobin (PHH), specifically porcine blood, had positive effects on lettuce plants subject to conditions of thermal stress. With the aim of evaluating the effects of the application of PHH on strawberry plants in the initial growing stages after being transplanted and subject to conditions of intense cold, we carried out an experiment to compare two doses of PHH with a commercial biostimulant (CB) and a control treatment (C). The results showed that the highest dose of PHH produced more biomass of newly formed roots, that both doses of PHH produced early flowering, and that both doses of PHH led to a significant increase in the early production of fruit compared with the C treatment. Non-significant differences were obtained between the CB and PHH treatments considering the individual parameters mentioned above, but the CB treatment was not significantly different from the C treatment. None of the biostimulant treatments improved the survival ratio of the strawberry plants compared with the control treatment.