Table 2.

Canopy colorimetric attributes of three microgreen species (lettuce, mustard, rocket) in response to nutrient deprivation treatment (DBH) applied for 6 or 12 days before harvest. All data are expressed as mean ± standard error, n = 3.

	L*		a*		b*		Chroma		HUE
	(0–100)		(−60/+60)		(−60/+60)		√(a2 + b2)		(0–360)°
Species	***		***		***		***		***
DBH	n.s.		**		**		**		n.s.
Species*DBH	**		n.s.		n.s.		*		n.s.
Lettuce	45.29 ± 1.76	a	−8.59 ± 0.24	b	28.73 ± 0.74	a	29.99 ± 0.78	a	106.65 ± 0.18	b
Mustard	31.88 ± 1.15	c	−6.15 ± 0.26	a	21.96 ± 0.42	c	22.81 ± 0.46	b	105.6 ± 0.46	b
Rocket	37.9 ± 0.63	b	−8.42 ± 0.1	b	24.46 ± 0.36	b	13.5 ± 0.15	c	109.03 ± 0.29	a
0	38.47 ± 3.18		−8.15 ± 0.47	b	26.02 ± 1.3	a	23.16 ± 2.73	a	107.42 ± 0.73
6	39.17 ± 1.91		−7.78 ± 0.37	ab	25.19 ± 0.98	ab	22.24 ± 2.4	a	107.16 ± 0.54
12	37.44 ± 1.47		−7.23 ± 0.43	a	23.95 ± 0.94	b	20.9 ± 2.1	b	106.7 ± 0.5
Lettuce, 0	50.17 ± 0.39	a	−9.29 ± 0.07		30.91 ± 0.21		32.28 ± 0.22	a	106.73 ± 0.1
Lettuce, 6	45.2 ± 2.09	ab	−8.52 ± 0.31		28.78 ± 0.24		30.01 ± 0.28	ab	106.48 ± 0.52
Lettuce, 12	40.5 ± 3.05	bc	−7.96 ± 0.37		26.51 ± 1.3		27.68 ± 1.34	b	106.73 ± 0.32
Mustard, 0	28.66 ± 0.7	d	−6.5 ± 0.72		22.82 ± 0.58		23.74 ± 0.72	c	105.84 ± 1.4
Mustard, 6	33.6 ± 2.33	cd	−6.35 ± 0.1		22.29 ± 0.64		23.17 ± 0.63	c	105.91 ± 0.38
Mustard, 12	33.39 ± 1.44	cd	−5.59 ± 0.28		20.78 ± 0.49		21.52 ± 0.53	c	105.05 ± 0.47
Rocket, 0	36.56 ± 1.52	cd	−8.67 ± 0.13		24.32 ± 1.16		13.47 ± 0.47	d	109.68 ± 0.58
Rocket, 6	38.71 ± 0.32	bc	−8.48 ± 0.17		24.52 ± 0.3		13.53 ± 0.11	d	109.1 ± 0.46
Rocket, 12	38.44 ± 1.01	bc	−8.12 ± 0.06		24.55 ± 0.38		13.49 ± 0.16	d	108.32 ± 0.16

n.s., *, **, *** Nonsignificant or significant at p ≤ 0.05, 0.01, and 0.001, respectively. Different letters within each column indicate significant differences according to Tukey–Kramer HSD test (p = 0.05).