Abstract

Studies were carried out to evaluate the effect of different mulching materials on growth, yield and quality of strawberry cv. Chandler having seven treatments with three replications in Randomized Block Design during 2010 and 2011. The treatments comprised of paddy straw, wheat straw, dry grass, transparent polyethylene, black polyethylene and no mulch (control). The results revealed that strawberry is very responsive to the different mulching materials. All the treatments improved the vegetative growth, yield and quality of strawberry, but black polythene mulch gave the best results in terms of reducing weed population (1.00/m²), increasing plant height (21.67 cm), plant spread (31.24 cm), number of leaves per plant (18.33), number of flowers per plant (28.33), number of fruits per plant (12.12), number of achenes/fruit (317.70),  fruit weight (11.83 g), fruit length (3.93 cm), fruit breadth (3.00 cm), yield (143.38 g/plant), total soluble solids (7.63 ⁰B), total sugars (7.00 %), vitamin-C (57.77 mg/100 g) and crude protein (9.64%). However, higher acidity (0.80%) and achene density/fruit (17.34) was observed in fruits grown without mulch. 

Key words: Strawberry cv. Chandler, mulching, growth, quality, yield.