The Effect of Wood Extract as a Water-Soluble Fertilizer in the Growth of Lactuca sativa

Abstract

Recently, due to environmental and toxicity issues, there has been increasing attention on research regarding natural products that can reduce the use of chemical fertilizers. Wood extracts derived from the biorefining process contain various fertilizer ingredients. HPLC analysis revealed that wood extract contains approximately 5.2% hemicellulosic sugar. The growth of lettuce (Lactuca sativa) upon treatment with wood extract (extract obtained from steam-exploded pine) or water-soluble fertilizers containing different nutrients was analyzed in this study. After two weeks, the growth characteristics of lettuce as affected by wood extract or water-soluble fertilizers were significantly different. The effect of water-soluble fertilizers containing ascorbic acid, magnesium sulfate, citric acid, potassium nitrate, amino acids, or seaweed extract was less desirable than that of wood extracts regarding plant height (18.6 cm), number of leaves (10), leaf length (14.1 cm), shoot fresh wight (9.8 g/plant), root fresh weight (0.8 g/plant) and shoot dry weight (0.6 g/plant). The plant height, number of leaves, leaf length, shoot fresh wight, root fresh weight, shoot dry weight of water-soluble fertilizers containing wood extract were significantly different compared to the control (plant height :13.5 cm, number of leaves : 7, leaf length : 9.4 cm, shoot fresh wight : 5.3 g/plant, root fresh weight : 0.7 g/plant, shoot dry weight : 0.4 g/plant, root dry weight : 0.07 g/plant). From these results, it was concluded that wood extract can be used as a potential water-soluble fertilizer to increase the yield of leafy vegetables.