A Kałużewicz, T Spiżewski, W Krzesiński, A Zaworska – Nauka Przyroda Technologie
Department of Vegetable Crops Poznań University of Life Sciences
Abstract
Background. Biostimulants are widely used in horticulture to increase yield and improve its quality as well as to increase plants’ resistance to stress. There are publications providing information on the effects of different biostimulants on broccoli cultivation, but there is no information how the quality of broccoli heads changes during storage when plants are treated with biostimulants during the growth period. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of amino acid biostimulants and amino acids applied in combination with Ascophyllum nodosum filtrate on the yield and quality of broccoli heads during cold storage for 1, 2 and 3 weeks.
Material and methods. The experiment was conducted between 2013 and 2014 and it comprised one broccoli cultivar ‘Tiburon’. The following objects were used in the experiment: amino acid biostimulant, Ascophyllum nodosum filtrate + amino acid biostimulant, control plants (without biostimulants). The yield quantity and quality were determined. The harvested broccoli heads were cold-stored for 3 weeks at 1–2°C and 95% RH. The content of sugars, vitamin C and colour were measured in fresh heads and after each week of cold storage. Results. There were no differences between the plants treated with biostimulants and the control plants in the total yield, mean weight and diameter of broccoli heads. In the first year of the study the biostimulants increased the sugar content after 3 weeks of storage, but in the second year of the study there was higher sugar content in the fresh heads. The content of vitamin C in the plants treated with the biostimulants was significantly higher after the first week of storage in the first year of the study. However, this trend did not continue in the second year.
Conclusions. The biostimulants did not increase the broccoli yield. The biostimulants and storage length affected the content of sugars and vitamin C, but there were considerable differences between the years of the research. The colour of broccoli heads did not change during storage
… The colour of the broccoli was measured with a StellarNet Black-Comet UV-VIS spectrometer in each week of storage. The following parameters were measured: L – brightness, ranging from no reflection for black (L = 0) to perfect diffuse reflection for white (L = 100), a – redness, ranging from negative values for green to positive values for red, b – yellowness, ranging from negative values for blue to positive values for yellow. Four different positions on the surface of each broccoli head were measured.
