Date Palm Waste Application as Culture Media for Strawberry and its Impact on Some Growth Indices and Yield Components

In order to investigate the possibility of replacing Coco peat as cultivation substrate with date palm wastes, this study was conducted by using 2 cultivars of strawberry plant using hydroponic cultivation system in a commercial hydroponic greenhouse placed at Narega village, Boyerahmad. The study was carried out using factorial experiment with a completely randomized design of 5 cultivation substrate treatments (date palm waste with particles 0-5 mm, date palm waste with particles 5-10 mm, date palm waste with particles10-20 mm, date palm waste mixed with particles (50% 0-5 mm particles, 30% 10-20 mm particles, and 20% 5-10 mm particles),and a mixture of coco peat and perlite (V/V=50) (as control). Studied cultivars were ‘Marak’ and ‘Queen’. During plant growth, humidity and temperature of different substrates were kept constant. Vegetative growth characteristics such as number of runners per plant, leaf number, plant height, leaf area, chlorophyll index and plant performance were measured. The results showed that cultivars had different effects in different cultivation substrates and with different particle sizes of palm cultivation substrate. Also, the result indicated that the highest growth and yield belonged to date palm culture media with 0-5mm particular size, which was not significantly different from Coco peat- perlite cultivation substrate.