Scholarly Article
Effects of boron addition on lettuce plants grown in the soil and hydroponically
Tlili, A., Dridi, I., Vannini, A., Bianchi, E., Canali, G., Jafarova, M., Fedeli, R.F., Monaci, F., Jedidi, N., Loppi, S.
2024-10-04 · Life and Environment · Sorbonne Université
Abstract
Boron (B) is a crucial micronutrient needed for plant growth. This study investigated the effect of B addition (0.5 mg kg-1-low, and 5 mg kg-1-high) on lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) plants grown in the soil and hydroponically. The results showed that B addition causes a differential increase in B concentration in lettuce leaves depending on the cultivation system. In soil-grown plants, a statistically significant increase in lettuce B concentration was shown with increasing B treatments compared to the control. Moreover, the B concentrations measured in lettuce were within the optimal level for healthy lettuce. While hydroponically-grown plants showed a statistically significant increase in lettuce B concentration at high B treatment compared to the control and low B treatment. However, the high B treatment in hydroponics caused a very high B concentration in lettuce (196.4 mg kg-1) leading to toxicity expressed by the decrease in normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and chlorophyll content. Therefore, B concentration should be below 5 mg kg-1 for hydroponically-grown lettuce. Soil total and available B concentrations increased with B addition and considered a sufficient level. The other soil physicochemical parameters did not reveal a statistically significant difference with the B treatments, except a modest increase in pH, suggesting that the soil has a great homeostatic capacity. Additionally, the results showed that hydroponically-grown lettuce performs much better in terms of biomass production.
Keywords
Biomass, Boron, Hydroponic, Lettuce, Photosynthesis, Soil
Citation Details
Life and Environment, pp. 17-23