Hormetic Effect of Wood Distillate on Hydroponically Grown Lettuce
Author:
Fedeli Riccardo1ORCID, Cruz Cristina2ORCID, Loppi Stefano13ORCID, Munzi Silvana24ORCID
Affiliation:
1. BioAgry Lab, Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena, 53100 Siena, Italy 2. Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal 3. BAT Center—Interuniversity Center for Studies on Bioinspired Agro-Environmental Technology, University of Naples ‘Federico II’, 80138 Napoli, Italy 4. Centro Interuniversitário de Historia das Ciências e da Tecnologia Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal
Abstract
The addition of biostimulants to nutrient solutions of hydroponically grown crops to speed up plant growth and improve plant yield and quality has been attracting more and more attention. This study investigated the effects of wood distillate (WD) addition to hydroponically grown lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) plants. Two concentrations of WD, 0.2% and 0.5%, were added to the nutrient solution, and biometric (i.e., leaf fresh weight, root fresh weight, root length and root surface area), photosynthetic (i.e., chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and carotenoid content) and biochemical (i.e., electrolyte leakage, total polyphenols, total flavonoids, and total antioxidant power content) parameters were evaluated. The effects of WD were hormetic, as the 0.2% concentration stimulated biometric and biochemical parameters, while the 0.5% concentration inhibited plant growth. Based on these results, it can be suggested that the addition of 0.2% WD to the nutrient solution has a stimulating effect on the growth of lettuce plants, and could be a successful strategy to boost the yield of crops grown hydroponically.
Funder
Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c) from FCT
Subject
Plant Science,Ecology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Reference58 articles.
1. Hydroponics: Key to sustain agriculture in water stressed and urban environment;Sheikh;Pak. J. Agric. Agric. Eng. Vet. Sci.,2006 2. Hemathilake, D.M.K.S., and Gunathilake, D.M.C.C. (2022). Future Foods, Academic Press. 3. Gashgari, R., Alharbi, K., Mughrbil, K., Jan, A., and Glolam, A. (2018, January 16–18). Comparison between growing plants in hydroponic system and soil based system. Proceedings of the 4th World Congress on Mechanical, Chemical, and Material Engineering, Madrid, Spain. 4. Tocquin, P., Corbesier, L., Havelange, A., Pieltain, A., Kurtem, E., Bernier, G., and Périlleux, C. (2003). A novel high efficiency, low maintenance, hydroponic system for synchronous growth and flowering of Arabidopsis thaliana. BMC Plant Biol., 3. 5. Hydroponics as an advanced technique for vegetable production: An overview;Sharma;J. Soil Water Conserv.,2018
|
|