Effect of Coir Slab Volumes on the Growth and Yield of Strawberry in a Hydroponic System

This study was conducted to examine the effect of slab areas of 100 cm 20 cm (L W) with varying volumes on the growth and yield of strawberry in a hanging gutter hydroponic system from September 2022 to March 2023.Coir slab volumes were used as the treatment: V 1 (H 20 cm), V 2 (H 15 cm), and V 3 (H 12 cm) with chip: dust ratio = 0:10 (v/v), and V 4 (H 12 cm) with chip: dust ratio = 5:5 (v/v).Irrigation was periodically adjusted, and all treatments received the same volume of nutrient solution.The drainage ratio was the highest in V 4 and the lowest in V 2 treatment.The average drainage EC ranged from 1.4 to1.5 dSm -1 and pH ranged from 6.6 to 6.9 for each treatment.Growth characteristics like petiole length, of V 2 and V 3 treated plants were higher than V 1 and V 4 treatments from November to February.The number of fruit and yield in V 2 and V 3 treatments were higher than V 1 and V 4 treatments in December and January.However, the total number of fruit and yield were not significant among the treatments.Moreover, the weight of fruit was the highest in V 2 and V 3 , followed by V 1 and V 4 treatments.Fruit quality parameters, including soluble solid contents, acidity, and fruit firmness, were the highest in V 2 treatments.The retained water volume was the highest in V 2 and the lowest in V 4 treatment.The water use efficiency (WUE) did not show significant variation among the treatments.Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that the highest correlations with V 2 and V 3 treatments were fruit number, fruit weight, and retained water volume.Therefore, the V 2 and V 3 treated plants showed better performance in the slab hydroponics system.However, the V 4 treatment showed the lowest retained water volume, suggesting that irrigation is controlled by the chip ratio can ensure strawberry growth and yield.