Recent evolution and trends in the soil fertility of Flemish strawberry fields

The Soil Service of Belgium (SSB, spin-off of the KULeuven) formulates each year hundreds of fertilization recommendations based on soil analyses in strawberry in open field. Soil samples are taken in the ploughing layer (0-30 cm) in order to determine the soil fertility (pH, C, P, K, Mg). In the last 5 years (2006-2012), SSB determined the soil fertility of more than 2000 soil samples from fields with different strawberry varieties (June bearing, late season varieties, everbearing varieties, strawberry breeding). In this contribution, the statistics and trends of the soil fertility will be discussed for the different strawberry varieties. Statistics are shown for sand, silt loam and silt which are the main soil types on which strawberries are cultivated in Flanders, Belgium.