Effect of silicon on nutrient concentration, photosynthetic pigments and fruit quality of strawberry cv. Camarosa

Mazandran province is ranked the second in production strawberry in Iran so it is considered as an important pole production of this popular small fruit. So in this research, the using of rice husk as an organic source of silicon (Si) along with foliar application of 50 and 100 mg Si/lit sodium and potassium silicate in strawberry cultivation was evaluated. The results showed that plants treated with sodium silicate 100 has more chlorophyll a in comparison with other silicon treatments. Potassium and calcium concentration of strawberry leaf in medium without rice husk (MWRH) was more than medium contained rice husk (MCRH) significantly. Among applied treatments, potassium silicate 100 was the only treatment that has more leaf silicon in comparison with other treatments at 1% probability level. Total flavonoid content in the MWRH with potassium silicate 100 treatment was significantly more than other treatments except MCRH with sodium silicate 50. Totally, MWRH with potassium silicate