Nutrient solution aeration and growing cycles affect quality and yield of fresh-cut baby leaf red lettuce

Encarnación Conesa,Catalina Egea-Gilabert,Diana Niñirola,Juan A Fernández

doi:10.23986/afsci.52792

Encarnación Conesa, Catalina Egea-Gilabert + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.23986/afsci.52792

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Abstract

The objective of this research was to study the effects of nutrient solution aeration [no aeration (NA), low aeration (LA) or high aeration (HA)] and growing cycle (autumn, winter and summer) on the yield, quality, and shelf life of red lettuce as a fresh-cut product grown in a floating system. The specific leaf area, yield and root diameter were affected by the growing cycle. The percentage of dry matter and the nitrate content were affected by growing cycle and aeration, total phenolics and mesophilic microorganism by aeration and storage time, hue angle and chromacity by growing cycle and storage time, and antioxidant capacity, vitamin C, lightness and psychrophilic microorganisms were affected by all three factors. NA conditions increased the antioxidant capacity in summer and vitamin C content in winter. The lowest mesophilic and psychrophilic count was observed in autumn. The effect of aeration on most of the quality parameters measured was influenced by the growing cycle.

Highlights

Lettuce is an important dietary leaf vegetable that is primarily consumed fresh or in salad mixes
The pipes were perforated with holes at 0, 6 or 36 holes m-2 to provide the different levels of aeration to be tested: no aeration (NA), low aeration (LA) and high aeration (HA), respectively
Our results revealed that red lettuce cultivated in floating system is tolerant to a lack of aeration of the nutrient solution since the yield was not affected (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Lettuce is an important dietary leaf vegetable that is primarily consumed fresh or in salad mixes. The “baby leaf” form, presented as whole leaves, 8–12 cm in length, with only one very small section, the petiole, exposed to oxidation, has grown in popularity as minimally processed vegetable products (Rodríguez-Hidalgo et al 2010). In comparison with whole-head lettuce, the baby leaf form shows greater efficiency, with a higher percentage of usable product and easier and faster processing; packed, it has a more attractive presentation and suffers minimal oxidation (Martínez-Sánchez et al 2012). Among the varieties of lettuce, red lettuce has several attractive traits for the consumer, colour and the high contents of phytochemicals with healthy effects (García-Macías et al 2007). The red lettuce cultivars generally contain more phenolic compounds and have stronger antioxidant activities than the other lettuce cultivars in the same growing conditions (Liu et al 2007).

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