Influence of Azotobacter, Azospirillum and PSB on vegetative growth, flowering, yield and quality of strawberry cv. Chandler

In order to investigate the influence of Azotobacter, Azospirillum and PSB on vegetative growth, flowering, yield and quality of strawberry cv. Chandler, the present experiment was carried out in the Department of Horticulture, C.S. Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur (U.P.), India, during two subsequent years. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications and ten treatments, viz., three levels each of Azotobacter (5, 6 and 7 kg/ha), Azospirillum (5, 6 and 7 kg/ha) and PSB (5, 6 and 7 kg/ha) including a control. Five kg of FYM was applied as a basal dose in all the treatments including control. All the doses of Azotobactor, Azospirillum and PSB were applied at the time of planting in the field. Plants treated with Azotobacter @ 7 kg/ha results significantly increase in the height of plant (16.05 and 15.13 cm, respectively), number of leaves (54.75 and 52.70, respectively), number of crown (6.34 and 5.74, respectively), number of runners (4.93 and 4.61, respectively), number of flowers (52.38 and 48.46, respectively) and number of fruits set (25.66 and 24.17, respectively) per plant. Maximum duration of harvesting (67.10 and 64.90 days, respectively) and minimum number of days to produce first flower (62.26 and 60.63 days, respectively) with significantly more yield (180.89 and 178.68 g/plant, respectively) were also obtained with Azotobacter @ 7 kg/ha treated plants. So far as the quality characters of berries are concerned, Azotobacter @ 7 kg/ha treated plants also produced berries with maximum average length (3.55 and 3.42 cm, respectively), width (2.35 and 2.27 cm, respectively), weight (7.23 and 6.73 g, respectively), TSS (9.13 and 8.610Brix, respectively), total sugars (8.20 and 7.71%, respectively) and ascorbic acid (56.01 and 55.69 mg/100g of pulp, respectively) contents as compared to other treatments.