Potassium Silicate Improves Salinity Resistant and Affects Fruit Quality in Two Strawberry Cultivars Grown Under Salt Stress

The response of Kurdistan' and Paros' strawberry cultivars to potassium silicate (K2O3Si) under sodium chloride (NaCl) salinity stress was studied in terms of vegetative parameters, sodium (Na) and potassium (K) content and fruit quality. K2O3Si could recover dry mass distribution of NaCl-stressed strawberry organs. Kurdistan cultivar tended to keep higher dry weight of leaves to maintain its photosynthetic apparatus activity. Inhibitory impact of K2O3Si on Na uptake of leaf was more obvious than root. Implementation of K2O3Si in some cases increased Total Soluble Solid (TSS) and Titratable Acidity (TA), which are the main factors determining taste of strawberry fruit. Furthermore, phenols and flavonoids were increased in Paros cultivar by effect K2O3Si under saline and non-saline conditions, respectively. Overall, our data suggest that silicon supply in strawberry plants not only could be used as a routine strategy to maintain growth and yield under salinity but also it could be beneficial for improvement of fruit quality attributes and health-related constituents.