Response of Mulching and Organic Fertilizers on the Growth Performance of Strawberry (Fragaria ananassa L.) in Southern Philippines

Abstract

Strawberry is a hybrid species of the genus Fragaria that is widely grown worldwide, especially in cool climate areas and are widely cultivated for their fruit. It is one of the important horticultural crops grown in many parts of the world. Strawberries can be grown using organic fertilizers under different mulching technique. This study investigated the growth and yield performance of strawberries to various application of organic fertilizers (vermicast, vermicompost and vermitea) and mulching materials (rice hull and plastic mulch). Planting materials were taken from a healthy, disease-free strawberry (Shoga) and carried out in Split Plot Factorial Design replicated four times. Strawberry plants applied with vermicompost resulted in significantly high percentage survival (99.16%), plant height (21.61 cm) and number of runners (3.93) compared to plants applied with vermicast and vermitea. Moreover, strawberry plants under plastic mulch condition had the highest growth and yield performance in terms of plant height (21.07 cm), number of runners (4.19), number of leaves (6.57) and total number of marketable fruits (48.10). Based on these results, strawberry applied with vermicompost under plastic mulch condition are recommended. Moreover, results can serve as basis for strawberry growers to use effective yet less expensive fertilizer particularly in tropical Philippines.