Abstract
Leafy vegetables are a daily part of the human diet all over the world. At the same time, a worldwide problem of Se malnutrition is present in human populations, mostly due to low soil Se contents. As plants represent the main source of this element in the human diet, with Se being an essential trace element for humans and animals, plant foods containing Se can be used as an efficient means of increasing the Se in the human diet, as well as in animal feed (biofortification). At the same time, the production of growing media relies on limited peat reserves. The use of earthworms facilitates the production of composted organic masses mostly consisting of organic waste, called vermicompost. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of three different growing media (commercial peat media, vermicompost, and a 1:1 mixture) on Se biofortification’s efficacy and yield in lamb’s lettuce. The Se biofortification was performed with sodium selenate (Na2SeO4). It was shown that biofortification increased the Se contents such that a mass of only 48.9 g of fresh leaves contained enough Se for the recommended daily intake in human nutrition (55 µg Se/day), which represents a significant potential for solving Se malnutrition. Furthermore, the use of a 1:1 vermicompost–commercial substrate mixture showed a similar performance to the peat growing medium, contributing to the preservation of peat reserves.
Highlights
Various anthropogenic activities, escalating urbanization, industrialization, and economic growth are leading to the production of huge quantities of solid waste around the globe
The aim of this study was to investigate the efficiency of Se biofortification with sodium selenate (Na2 SeO4 ) in three different growing media: A commercial substrate (CS), vermicompost, and a mixture of these two substrates in a 1:1 ratio
The commercial substrate–vermicompost mixture in the 50:50 ratio exerted a similar performance to the commercial substrate in the cultivation of lamb’s lettuce
Summary
Various anthropogenic activities, escalating urbanization, industrialization, and economic growth are leading to the production of huge quantities of solid waste around the globe The management of this solid waste has become an ecological and a technical problem for all [1]. Due to the rising costs and uncertain future availability of peat moss, there is a need for alternative components in commercial potting substrates. The large-scale removal of peat from bogs is destroying wildlife habitats, and the process of peat regeneration is extremely slow [3] Combining these two insights with the fact of increasing garbage production and the increasing shortage of resources, one of the possible solutions to these problems might be vermicomposting
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