Abstract

In Italy, the cultivation of wild rocket is still rising due to the increase of the market of minimally processedvegetables that requires innovative and high quality products. The present study focused on the interactive effectof irrigation regimes (IR) and nitrogen (N) supply on yield, water use efficiency (WUE), nitrogen use efficiency(NUE), morphological and quality parameters of wild rocket. The research was carried out on four crop cyclesduring autumn-spring season in Basilicata region, Southern Italy, on wild rocket grown in a plastic greenhouse.Four IR (corresponding to 75, 100, 125 and 150% of crop evapotranspiration, and labelled respectively as I75,I100, I125 and I150) and two N levels (60 and 120 kg ha-1), were compared. The irrigation and N levels affectedproduction traits of wild rocket. The highest yield was obtained by I100, while 8% and 6% decrease in yield wasobserved with I75 and I150, respectively. The greater yield was obtained with the higher N rate, to which contributedfirstly the leaf number and secondly the leaf size. However, the higher N dose provided higher leafnitrate content. Moreover, in conditions of greater water stress occurring in the last two crop cycles of I75, higherN rate adversely affected yield. Lower water and N supply improved phenols, carotenoids and antioxidant activityin rocket leaves. Both yield and biomass WUE increased in water shortage conditions (I75) at 1st crop cycle.Thereafter, both parameters tended to decrease because of the increase of water shortage, indicating that biomassand marketable yield losses were proportionally greater than the amount of water used by crops. Higher Nrate improved WUE, but reduced NUE. The latter parameter was higher in water shortage conditions. Thus,adequate water and N supply are critical factors to ensure economically sustainable production levels and highquality features of wild rocket.

Autore Pugliese

• Di Venere Donato , Sergio Lucrezia , Cantore Vito

Tutti gli autori

• M.I. Schiattone; R. Viggiani; D. Di Venere; L. Sergio; V. Cantore; M. Todorovic; M. Perniola; V. Candido

Titolo volume/Rivista

Scientia horticulturae

Anno di pubblicazione

2017

ISSN

0304-4238

ISBN

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Wos

Nessuna citazione

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Numero di citazioni Scopus

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Settori ERC

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Codici ASJC

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