Study of Strawberry Fertilization Practices and Their Effects on Fruit Yield and Quality in the Loukkos-Gharb Region

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of strawberry fertilization practices on fruit yield and quality in the Loukkos-Gharb region in Morocco. The investigation combined a survey carried out among strawberry growers, and fruit laboratory analysis performed on strawberry samples collected from growers’ farms. Our results show that cultivation practices are almost similar among growers. However, we have observed that large-scale strawberry growers prefer higher planting density, 65,000 plants/ha in average compared to 55,000 plants/ha practiced generally by the rest of the growers, and they use the Fortuna strawberry variety, an early maturing plant material. We also noticed that early planting of root ball plants of the Fortuna strawberry variety in high tunnels, at the beginning of September, allows large-scale strawberry growers to harvest at the start of November, a month earlier than the other growers. Again, such strawberry cultivation system set up in the region offers high yields for large growers, an average of 60 T/ha compared to 45 and 50T/ha obtained by small and medium growers, respectively. Fruit analysis revealed variations in soluble solids concentrations ranging from 6.7 to 11 °Brix, these values are independent of variety, category of producer and yield. For the fertilization aspect, several trends of soluble solids concentrations were correlated with three elements N, P and K showing respective correlation coefficients of 0.34, 0.35 and 0.48. Only Potassium has shown a significant correlation (p=0.05). No significant relationship was found between acidity and the studied nutrients.

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