ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Nutrient Solution Strength Affects Growth, Physiology, Biochemistry and Fruit Quality of Korean Strawberry 'Kuemsil' in a Recycling Hydroponic System
Provisionally accepted
- 1Agriculture and Life Sciences Research Institute, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon-si, Republic of Korea
- 2Department of agriculture and industries, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon-si, Republic of Korea
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Determining the optimal nutrient solution strength is critical for sustainable strawberry production in hydroponics. This study investigated the effects of nutrient solution strength on growth, physiological performance, antioxidant activity, and fruit quality of the strawberry cultivar 'Kuemsil' grown in a recycling hydroponic system. Four nutrient solution strengths were tested: one-third (1/3S), half (1/2S), two-thirds (2/3S), and full strength (1S) of the Japan Horticultural Research Institute solution, using coconut coir substrate in a greenhouse for 175 days from September 2024 to May 2025. Plant growth traits, photosynthetic parameters, pigment concentrations, antioxidant activity, and fruit quality attributes were measured. Results showed that the 2/3S treatment significantly enhanced vegetative growth, photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, and pigment content. Furthermore, the 2/3S treatment improved antioxidant capacity, including total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, DPPH radical scavenging activity, and ferric reducing antioxidant power. Moreover, antioxidant enzyme activities, such as peroxidase and catalase, were substantially higher under the 2/3S treatment compared to the other treatments. Fruit weight, firmness, soluble solids content, and mineral contents (potassium, magnesium, phosphorus) were also highest under 2/3S, whereas 1/3S consistently produced the lowest values. In contrast, the 1/3S treatment resulted in higher values for absorbed energy per reaction center (ABS/RC) and trapped energy per reaction center (TRo/RC). These increases suggest that the reaction centers were subject to greater excitation pressure and retained more of the absorbed energy under reduced nutrient strength. To sum up, the 2/3S treatment provided the best balance between growth, physiology, and fruit quality. These findings suggest that applying a two-thirds strength nutrient solution is optimal for enhancing both productivity and fruit quality of 'Kuemsil' strawberries under recycling hydroponic conditions.
Keywords: fruit quality, Hydroponics, photosynthetic rate, Peroxidase, Catalase
Received: 14 Aug 2025; Accepted: 25 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zebro, Baek, Kim, Jeong, GM and Choi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ki-Young Choi
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.