The Effects of Biostimulant Application on Growth Parameters of Lettuce Plants Grown under Deficit Irrigation Conditions
Year: 2022
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: The aim of the present study was to examine the potential ameliorative effects of biostimulant application on lettuce plants grown under deficit irrigation conditions. For this purpose, we evaluated the effect of five biostimulant products with a varied composition (e.g., seaweed extracts + macronutrients + amino acids (SW); humic + fulvic acids (HF); Si + Ca (SiC); Si (Si); vegetable proteins + amino acids (VP)) and the control treatment (no biostimulant added (NB)) on field-grown lettuce plants (Lactuca sativa L.: Romaine type cv. Doris) under deficit irrigation conditions (Control treatment: rain-fed plants; I1: 50% of field capacity; I2: 100% of field capacity). The growth parameters tested were plant weight (aerial part), number of leaves, fresh and dry weight of leaves, plant height, leaf area index (LAI) and specific leaf area (SLA), and SPAD index. Our results indicate that the biostimulant with seaweed extracts + macronutrients + amino acids (SW) combined with deficient irrigation (I1) presented the highest values in terms of plant weight, leaf weight, LAI, as well as the chlorophyll content in lettuce plants. According to the SPAD values, the biostimulant treatments performed higher values of chlorophyll in the case of the rain-fed plants compared to those that were fully irrigated (I2). In addition, the Si treatment presented the higher plant height under deficit irrigation (I1) as well as the greatest number of leaves. In general, all of the biostimulants showed a better response to deficit irrigation and to rain-fed plants compared to those with full irrigation in almost all of the measurements.
Authors: Christina Chaski, Spyridon A. Petropoulos
Institution: University of Thessaly
Language: English
Subfield: Plant Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4292332381