Table 3.
Nitrate and mineral content of three microgreen species (lettuce, mustard, and 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.
| Source of Variance | Nitrate | P | K | Ca | Mg | S | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (mg kg−1 FW) | (mg g−1 DW) | (mg g−1 DW) | (mg g−1 DW) | (mg g−1 DW) | (mg g−1 DW) | |||||||
| Species | *** | *** | *** | *** | *** | *** | ||||||
| DBH | *** | *** | *** | n.s. | n.s. | *** | ||||||
| Species*DBH | *** | n.s. | n.s. | * | * | *** | ||||||
| Lettuce | 313.36 ± 53.52 | b | 3.55 ± 0.13 | c | 97.68 ± 1.11 | a | 14.66 ± 0.39 | c | 7.75 ± 0.13 | b | 3.01 ± 0.16 | c |
| Mustard | 386.81 ± 82.58 | b | 4.97 ± 0.14 | a | 69.57 ± 1.47 | c | 21.32 ± 0.46 | a | 9.90 ± 0.20 | a | 4.39 ± 0.37 | a |
| Rocket | 1111.22 ± 341.57 | a | 4.34 ± 0.21 | b | 77.78 ± 1.11 | b | 19.26 ± 0.33 | b | 7.91 ± 0.18 | b | 4.08 ± 0.45 | b |
| 0 | 1208.73 ± 313.05 | a | 4.86 ± 0.23 | a | 84.35 ± 4.34 | a | 18.48 ± 0.85 | 8.35 ± 0.28 | 4.99 ± 0.38 | a | ||
| 6 | 439.25 ± 56.77 | b | 4.15 ± 0.19 | b | 82.2 ± 4.21 | a | 18.42 ± 1.00 | 8.43 ± 0.38 | 3.66 ± 0.17 | b | ||
| 12 | 163.40 ± 19.30 | c | 3.86 ± 0.22 | c | 78.47 ± 4.26 | b | 18.34 ± 1.28 | 8.79 ± 0.46 | 2.84 ± 0.14 | c | ||
| Lettuce, 0 | 502.98 ± 9.23 | bcd | 3.99 ± 0.06 | 101.24 ± 1.54 | 15.22 ± 0.48 | d | 7.99 ± 0.02 | c | 3.48 ± 0.05 | bcd | ||
| Lettuce, 6 | 300.83 ± 17.81 | de | 3.54 ± 0.06 | 97.41 ± 0.69 | 14.69 ± 0.40 | d | 7.76 ± 0.32 | c | 3.13 ± 0.06 | cde | ||
| Lettuce, 12 | 136.27 ± 15.18 | e | 3.12 ± 0.09 | 94.39 ± 0.5 | 14.07 ± 1.03 | d | 7.52 ± 0.19 | c | 2.42 ± 0.04 | e | ||
| Mustard, 0 | 686.13 ± 18.91 | b | 5.45 ± 0.14 | 74.19 ± 1.17 | 20.15 ± 0.63 | abc | 9.38 ± 0.29 | ab | 5.72 ± 0.09 | a | ||
| Mustard, 6 | 356.09 ± 8.58 | cde | 4.84 ± 0.15 | 68.7 ± 1.97 | 21.21 ± 0.65 | ab | 9.84 ± 0.18 | a | 4.17 ± 0.25 | b | ||
| Mustard, 12 | 118.2 ± 7.44 | e | 4.63 ± 0.08 | 65.81 ± 1.64 | 22.59 ± 0.41 | a | 10.49 ± 0.21 | a | 3.28 ± 0.16 | cd | ||
| Rocket, 0 | 2437.09 ± 188.52 | a | 5.14 ± 0.18 | 77.63 ± 2.29 | 20.06 ± 0.37 | abc | 7.68 ± 0.18 | c | 5.76 ± 0.22 | a | ||
| Rocket, 6 | 660.84 ± 26.44 | bc | 4.07 ± 0.05 | 80.5 ± 0.67 | 19.36 ± 0.30 | bc | 7.69 ± 0.34 | c | 3.67 ± 0.15 | bc | ||
| Rocket, 12 | 235.74 ± 13.41 | de | 3.82 ± 0.12 | 75.21 ± 1.49 | 18.35 ± 0.55 | c | 8.35 ± 0.27 | bc | 2.81 ± 0.14 | de |
n.s., *, *** Nonsignificant or significant at p ≤ 0.05 and 0.001, respectively. Different letters within each column indicate significant differences according to Tukey–Kramer HSD test (p = 0.05).