Organic Alternatives Improve Growth, Yield and Soil Attributes of Strawberry (Fragaria x Ananassa Duch.) Cv. 'Sweet Charlie'

To achieve quality strawberry production without hampering its nutritive value, the use of eco-friendly organic amendments is seen as a preferable resort. Keeping in view their lucrative effects, an experiment was carried out during 2021-2022 aimed at evaluating the impact of organic nutrient sources on growth, yield and soil properties of strawberry cv. 'Sweet Charlie'. The experiment was set up in a naturally ventilated polycarbonate house and was laid out in randomized block design (RBD) and replicated thrice. The effects of these various alternative combinations (vermicompost, humic acid, neem cake, plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria [PGPR] and jeevamrit) were investigated during studies. There was a 0.19%, 0.18 and 1.90% increase in plant height, leaf area and number of crowns in T6, respectively, over control (T10). Similarly, an improvement of 3.80, 6.39 and 13.59% in the number of flowers, fruit set and yield was eventually recorded under the same treatment. There was also a 20.00, 15.96, 0.24 and 0.80% significant increase with respect to carbon partitioning in shoots, soil organic carbon, available N and K under T6 compared to control. In addition to this, 53.05, 43.14 and 14.29% enhancement under T6 for bacterial, actinomycetes and fungal counts were also observed. Treatment T6, with the promising performance comprising 80% recommended dose of nitrogen (RDN)-40% through vermicompost (120 g/m2 bed), 40% through neem cake (60 g/m2 bed), humic acid (10 g/plant), and jeevamrit + PGPR, each 25 ml/plant, displayed the effective potential for nutrient management in cultivating strawberries within an organic production system.