COMPARISON BETWEEN TRADITIONAL AND SOILLESS CULTURE SYSTEMS TO PRODUCE ROCKET (ERUCA SATIVA) WITH LOW NITRATE CONTENT

S. Nicola, J. Hoeberechts, E. Fontana
Rocket is traditionally cultivated in soil and commercialized either as fresh or as ready-to-eat produce. This leafy vegetable is often commercialized fresh, cut, washed, conditioned in packages as ready-to-eat food, giving added-value to the fresh products. Soilless culture system (SCS) allows to control growth factors and clean leaf production, easing and shortening postharvest handling in process industries. A comparison between the traditional culture system (TCS) and a SCS was effected, with two plant densities (1067 and 2134 plants/m2). TCS was simulated in polystyrene trays filled with local soil and peat (1:1 v/v), overhead irrigation and weekly fertilization. For SCS 40-cell trays were filled with 1:1 perlite and peat, seeded and floated in a nutrient solution during plant growth. Fresh leaf production was significantly influenced by culture system x plant density. Rocket grown with SCS produced about 75% more than plants grown with TCS. The plants grown in SCS with the highest plant density gave the greatest production (2182 g m-2). Nitrate leaf content was significantly influenced by the culture systems. The leaves of plants grown with TCS contained less NO3- than those grown with SCS, in a ratio of 1:1.6. With both culture systems the nitrate content was much lower than 2500 mg kg 1 f.w., which is the maximum content allowed by EU regulation for lettuce. In this experiment SCS allowed to enhance earliness: in fact, SCS produced marketable and ready-to-eat rocket in 70 days, while TCS would require extended growing period.
Nicola, S., Hoeberechts, J. and Fontana, E. (2005). COMPARISON BETWEEN TRADITIONAL AND SOILLESS CULTURE SYSTEMS TO PRODUCE ROCKET (ERUCA SATIVA) WITH LOW NITRATE CONTENT . Acta Hortic. 697, 549-555
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2005.697.72
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2005.697.72
plant density, tray, nutrient solution, irrigation system, ready-to-eat produce
English

Acta Horticulturae