SENSIBILITY OF DIFFERENT VEGETABLES TO OXYGEN DEFICIENCY AND AERATION WITH H₂O₂ IN THE RHIZOSPHERE

Oxygen deficiency in protected cultivation of vegetables still is fairly unexplored.
Two pot experiments were conducted with tomato, cucumber, bean and zucchini in greenhouse compartments under controlled conditions.
In the first experiment, young plants were grown in fertilized soil, flooded for three days, and subsequently drained for another three days to screen susceptibility to O₂-deficiency.
In the second experiment, young plants were cultivated in nutrient solution to test H₂O₂ as oxygen fertilizers.
Treatments were aerated with pressurized air and 0.4 mM H₂O₂ and compared to a non-aerated control.
Bean plants were most susceptible to O₂-deficiency and almost no adventitious root growth was detected neither in the soil nor in the hydroponic experiment.
Tomato had the most vigorous adventitious root growth in soil.
Cucumber was also relatively insensitive to O₂-deficiency in the root zone in both experiments because of adventitious root growth.
Zucchini plants were the least sensitive, although there was hardly any adventitious root formation in the soil experiment, however was well developed in the hydroponic experiment.
The tested plant species differed in their stress tolerance to oxygen deficiency in the rhizosphere possibly due to their ability of adventitious root formation and speed of root regeneration, in general.
In the hydroponic experiment, plants responded much better to pressurized air than to H₂O₂ aeration.
H₂O₂–treatment increased O₂-content of the nutrient solution but did not induce new root growth.

VII International Symposium on Protected Cultivation in Mild Winter Climates: Production, Pest Management and Global Competition

S. Walter, H. Heuberger, W.H. Schitzler

adaption, adventitious root growth, flooding, nutrient solution, protected cultivation

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2004.659.66