Effect of two plastic mulches and three levels of water irrigation on a strawberry crop

Abstract

This research was carried out at the Experimental Farm Botana of the University of Nariño to evaluate the effect of black (BC) and silver plastic (SC) cover and without cover (WC) and the application of three levels of water irrigation, low (LL), medium (ML) and high (HL) (0.6, 0.75 and 0,9 of evaporation measured in a pan evaporimeter) on yield and quality of strawberry crop; a randomized complete block design with split plot arrangement, where the main plot corresponded to the plastic covers and subplots to the three levels of irrigation water. Variables evaluated were: number of fruits per plant (NFP), fruit weight (FW), fruit length (FL), total soluble solids (TSS), and yield (Y). The results showed that silver cover (SC) acts positively on total soluble solid (TSS) increasing the amount in the fruit; in the interaction cover x levels, the highest values were gotten for fruit weight and fruit length (FW and FL) using black cover (BC) and high level (HL); similar results were observed for number of fruits per plant (NFP) with black cover (BC) and the three levels of water irrigation with values ranged between 2,59 y 2,30 fruits; lower number of fruits per plant (NFP) was gotten in treatments without cover (WC). With respect to yield, black cover x the high level of water irrigation got the best results. Treatments without cover with the three levels of water irrigation got lowest yield without statistical differences between them.