The use of vermicompost for stimulation of the antioxidant activity of strawberry plants (Fragaria × ananassa Duchesne ex Rozier).

Tchupakhina N.U.¹, Tõnutare T.², Gerbst O.V. ¹

¹ Kaliningrad State Technical University Sovetsky prospect, 1. Kaliningrad 236000, Russia.

²Estonian University of Life Sciences Kreutzwaldi str., 1. Tartu 51014, Estonia.

The research was conducted on the effect of three products of the company «Green-PIK KANAK OÜ» (Estonia), made on the basis of vermicompost, - fertilizers "Vermicompost Green-PIK", "Ruponics" and "Humistar Green-PIK" - on the total content of antioxidants in ripe leaves and berries of garden strawberry (Fragária x ananassa Duch.), Sonata variety / 1 /.

"Vermicompost Green-PIK" is a concentrated granulated fertilizer. "Ruponics" and "Humistar" are its liquid and oily extracts, respectively. The fertilizers were applied around the roots. The experimental strawberries were planted in the open ground and were grown in the production fields in the south of Tartu County, Estonia, in May 2010. Leaves for the analysis were collected in May, and berries - in June of 2011. The estimation of the total antioxidant activity was carried out using the author’s method of Yashin Y.I. on the analyzer "TsvetYauza-01-AA".

Liquid conditioners "Humistar" and "Ruponics" had different effects on the leaves and berries of the strawberry. "Humistar" inhibited AA of the leaves by 25.7%, and "Ruponics" - by 65.3%. "Humistar" stimulated AA of berries by 4.6%, and "Ruponics" - by 10.5%. Fertilizer "Vermicompost Green-PIK" stimulated the antioxidant activity of strawberry leaves and berries by 15.3 and 60.4%, respectively.

1. Rajbir Singh, R.R. Sharma, Satyendra Kumar, R.K. Gupta, R.T. Patil. Vermicompost substitution influences growth, physiological disorders, fruit yield and quality of strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.). Bioresource Technology 99 (2008) 8507–8511.