QUALITY AND COMPOSITION OF LETTUCE (cv. ‘PLENTY’) GROWN IN SOIL AND SOILLESS CULTURE

‘Plenty’, a butterhead type lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) was grown hydroponically and in the soil into an unheated glasshouse.
The plants were transplanted in the soil and into steel troughs filled with perlite or pumice of 0-8 and 5-8 mm grades.
The experiment ended at 81 days after transplanting.
The plants of the soil culture exhibited an excellent visual quality, essentially free from any defect, without any tipburn symptom, while the plants of the soilless culture had some minor defects, but not objectionable; in addition, they developed some tipburn, especially the plants growing in perlite.
The plants harvested from the soilless culture had a lower dry matter, chlorophyll, Mg, Fe and Mn content and a higher titratable acidity as well as nitrate, total N, P and K content, in comparison with the plants harvested from the soil culture.
No significant differences were observed between plants harvested from the soilless and the soil culture in pH, soluble solids and Ca content, as well as in the tristimulus values of leaf color.

International Symposium on Growing Media and Hydroponics

A.S. Siomos, G. Beis, P.P. Papadopoulou, N. Barbayiannis

hydroponics, substrates, perlite, pumice, Lactuca sativa L.

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2001.548.52