Indoor strawberry production is now on the rise to meet Canadian demand in all seasons. This year, Nutrienvisus Technologies Inc partnered with Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) to maximize strawberry production using our plant probiotics, Enviotics®.
Obstacles Faced by Canadian Strawberry Farmers: Crop Losses and Off-Season Production.
A strawberry grower in British Columbia was dealing with 60% crop losses; other strawberry producers who are outdoor might also encounter the same challenges.
“We are growing 25, almost 30 acres of strawberries outdoors, but we’re only harvesting 10 acres’ because of all the loss”, said one of the strawberry growers.” (CBC News, May 2, 2023).
To fulfil the strawberry demand during the winter (off-season), growers in Canada must grow strawberry plants indoors.
Trials revealed strawberry production can benefit from the use of Enviotics®
The trials were conducted by a team of plant biologists and agronomists from the Institute for Sustainable Horticulture (ISH), Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU): Dr. Sepideh T. Adabi, Mohammad Ameri, MSc, and Dr. Deborah Henderson. This project was led by Dr. Henderson, and it was funded by the NSERC grant (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada). We aim to establish the use of plant probiotics to support the idea of year-round sustainable and premium berries.
For this trial we used strawberry plants and growth media that were obtained from Delta View Farms, Delta, BC.
The strawberry plants were grown using following growth conditions:
- Light regimes: 16/8 h photoperiod/darkness
- A photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD): 260 μmol m-2 s-1
- Day temperature: 20oC
- Night temperature: 15oC
- Pollination: wind pollination
- Relative humidity: 60-65%
Plant nutrition combinations/treatments:
1. Standard Grower Fertilizer (SGF)
2. SGF + Enviotics®
Standard grower fertilizer and Enviotics were applied at the planting time and then weekly. The standard grower fertilizer has an EC of 1.2 ms/cm and a pH of 6.1 with a composition of nutrients as follows: N (74 ppm), P (32 ppm), K (70 ppm), Ca (65 ppm), Mg (40 ppm), S (54 ppm), Fe (0.9 ppm), Mg (0.55 ppm), Zn (0.33 ppm), Cu (0.05 ppm), B (0.1 ppm), Mo (0.1 ppm).
Enviotics is a consortium of Bacillus species (plant probiotics). The product is designed to enrich root microbiomes and can be used on a variety of crops such as: ornamentals, vegetables, and fruits. The product comes in powder form, and liquid applications can be made by diluting it with water or a final concentration of standard growth fertilizers.
Increase Yields: Flowers & Fruits
All the strawberry plants grew very healthy. On average, it takes 60 to 90 days for a strawberry plant to grow from a seed to a mature plant. As expected in this trial, we found that the quantity of flowers and fruits increased linearly from day 0 (transplanting) to day 84 after transplanting for both treatments (Table 1).
Table 1. Growth percentage of flowers and fruits from day 0 to day 84.
Overall, we observed an increase in the growth percentage of flowers & fruits in the presence of Enviotics® in comparison to the control. At 14 to 56 days after transplanting, we observed an increase in the growth percentage of flowers and fruits, which was up to 1.7 fold. As a result, the total strawberry fruits of the treated plants with Enviotics® increased by 44% in comparison to the control.
We can observe the potential use of Enviotics® to complement or improve the performance of the grower standard synthetic fertilizer for both indoor and outdoor production.
In this trial we also observed that the root density of SGF +Enviotics® (score: 3.83) was better than in the control, standard grower fertilizer only (score: 3.25), as you can see below:
How do Enviotics work?
Enviotics promote plant growth and fitness by
(1) Increasing nutrient availability and uptake
(2) Stimulating root growth
(3) Enhancing plant development and growth
(4) Improving plant health and quality
(5) Sustaining plants under stress.
The Nutrienvisus team is excited to use their knowledge and experience in plant nutrition and plant probiotics to provide innovative, precision and formulated products for growers to increase production.
For more information on our Enviotics, please email us at info@nutrienvisus.com and WhatsApp to 604 401 1722.