Effect of aqueous extracts of the sprouted seeds on the quantitative and qualitative yield of the coral lettuce cultured under the modified nutrient solution film NFT system

Abstract

The study was conducted at the fields of the Dept. of Horticulture and Garden Engineering, College of the Agricultural Engineering Sciences, Jadriyah in the fall season of 2020-2021 aiming to culture the coral lettuce with green and red leaves under the hydroponics system using the modified nutrient solution film NFT and study the effect of aqueous extracts of alfalfa and berseem sprouted seeds on the quantitative and qualitative yield of the lettuce crop. The research was conducted as an experiment of split plots within the Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) of three replicates. The seedlings of the green coral lettuce, Locarno RZ, and red coral lettuce, Locarno RZ, symbolized by A and B respectively, were transferred to the culture system on 1/10/2020. Lettuce hybrids were regarded as the less important factor (main plot). The plants were sprayed with aqueous extracts of the alfalfa sprouted seeds at the two concentrations of 5 and 10%, symbolized by T1 and T2, and with aqueous extracts of the berseem sprouted seeds at the two concentrations of 5 and 10%, symbolized by T3 and T4, respectively, in addition to the control treatment (spraying with distilled water only), symbolized by T0. They were sprayed to full wetness three times at an interval of 10 days. This was regarded as the most important factor (subplot). Each experimental unit contained 10 plants. Results showed significant superiority of the treatment AT2 in the leaf chlorophyll content, number of leaves, leaf area and dry weight of vegetative growth (80.00 mg.100g fresh weight-1, 37.00 leaf.plant-1, 144.05 dcm2.plant-1, 10.97 g.plant-1 respectively) compared to the lowest value of the treatment BT0 (60.56 mg.100g fresh weight-1, 19.00 leaf.plant-1, 63.32 dcm2.plant-1 and 5.65g.plant-1 respectively). The same treatment (AT2) was superior in the highest root dry weight, and plant yield amounted to 1.92 and 364.35g.plant-1, respectively compared to the lowest values at the treatment AT0, recording 0.75 and 219.92g.plant -1 respectively. The interaction treatments' effect was insignificant on the content of β-carotene and VC in the leaves. We concluded that it is possible to culture the coral lettuce hydroponically and increase its productivity through spraying with the aqueous extracts of the alfalfa sprouted seeds at the concentration of 5%, which did not record a significant difference in the production from the treatment of spraying with aqueous extracts of the alfalfa sprouted seeds at 10%. Keywords: Lactuca sativa L., Red lettuce, Organic nutrients, Plant extracts, Soil culture.