Combination of Ascophyllum nodosum Extract and Humic Acid Improve Early Growth and Reduces Post-Harvest Loss of Lettuce and Spinach

Monica Sandepogu, Pushp Sheel Shukla, Samuel Asiedu, Svetlana Yurgel and Balakrishnan Prithiviraj
Additional contact information
Monica Sandepogu: Marine Bio-products Research Laboratory, Department of Plant, Food and Environmental Sciences, Dalhousie University, Truro, NS B2N 5E3, Canada
Pushp Sheel Shukla: Marine Bio-products Research Laboratory, Department of Plant, Food and Environmental Sciences, Dalhousie University, Truro, NS B2N 5E3, Canada
Samuel Asiedu: Department of Plant, Food and Environmental Sciences, Dalhousie University, Truro, NS B2N 5E3, Canada
Svetlana Yurgel: Department of Plant, Food and Environmental Sciences, Dalhousie University, Truro, NS B2N 5E3, Canada
Balakrishnan Prithiviraj: Marine Bio-products Research Laboratory, Department of Plant, Food and Environmental Sciences, Dalhousie University, Truro, NS B2N 5E3, Canada

Agriculture, 2019, vol. 9, issue 11, 1-16

Abstract: Leafy vegetables like lettuce and spinach are prone to significant post-harvest losses during handling and storage. The pre-harvest treatment of crops with biostimulants offers a sustainable strategy for reducing post-harvest losses. Earlier studies focused on the effect of plant biostimulants applied individually. In this study, we studied the efficacy of a combined application of two commonly used plant biostimulants: Ascophyllum nodosum extract (ANE) and humic acid (HA). Interestingly, the combination of both biostimulants improved early growth of lettuce and spinach compared to ANE and HA alone. Among the combinations used in this study, 0.25% ANE + 0.2% HA produced significantly higher fresh and dry biomass in lettuce and spinach compared to the other treatments and the control. Pre-harvest treatment of combination of 0.25% ANE and 0.2% HA significantly reduced the loss of fresh biomass during post-harvest storage. The combination of 0.25% ANE and 0.2% HA reduced lipid peroxidation during storage with an increase in total ascorbate, phenolic, and antioxidant capacity of spinach and lettuce. These results suggest that a combination of ANE and HA reduces post-harvest losses of spinach and lettuce more effectively than when applied individually.

Keywords: biostimulants; seaweed extract; plant growth; spinach; lettuce; post-harvest loss (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/9/11/240/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/9/11/240/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:9:y:2019:i:11:p:240-:d:285632

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().