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

ABSTRACT

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.

Abbreviations: ANOVA: Analysis of Variance; CRD: Completely Randomized Design; DPPH: 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl; FF: Fruit Firmness; LSD: Least Significant Difference; PAL: Phenyl Alanine Ammonia Lyase; ROS: Reactive Oxygen Species; TSS: Total Soluble Solid; TAA: Total Antioxidant Activity; TA: Titratable Acidity; TAC: Total Anthocyanin; TF: Total Flavonoids; TP: Total Phenolics;