Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer ISSN:0367-6315(Print) 2288-2162(Online) 한국토양비료학회 학회지

Development of a customized fertigation guide for greenhouse crops is a very important means to attain soil quality control as well as a favorable crop yield. In this study, we tried to develop and validate the fertigation guide of greenhouse strawberry using crop growth and NPK uptake rates by the specific growth stage. To achieve these goals, we firstly applied 4 different N levels based on soil-testing recommendation rates (SR) of Standard Fertilizer Recommendation: 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 and 1.5 times of SR. Phosphate and potassium were applied as much as the SR by the guide. Strawberry plants were cultivated from Sep., 2017 to May, 2018 with the density of 1.0 × 0.1 m. The growth and NPK uptake rates were estimated every 30 days from 30 days after transplanting (DAT) until final harvest. The growth rates (as expressed dry weight) were not significantly different between N treatments throughout the whole growth period. Soil nitrate-N contents at the final harvest stage showed significant difference between treatments; 1.5 times was the greatest and the others were similar to each other as much as the contents before transplanting. In order to validate effects of the newly developed fertigation guide, the yield was compared to soil-testing based fertigation rates and farmer’s practice, and was not significantly differed between both practices. On the other hand, the nutrient use efficiency was the greatest in the developed fertigation guide for both N and P due to the reduced fertilizer application. It implies that the growth rates-based variable application is a key consideration to make the fertigation guide of various greenhouse crops for sustainable cultivation.