Dipartimento di Scienze degli Alimenti, University of Udine, Via Sondrio 2, I-33100 Udine, Italy.
J Sci Food Agric. 2011 Jun;91(8):1373-80. doi: 10.1002/jsfa.4313. Epub 2011 Feb 18.
Nowadays, there is an increasing interest in the hydroponic floating system to cultivate leafy vegetables for ready-to-eat salads. It is reasonable that different growing systems could affect the quality and shelf life of these salads.
The quality and shelf life of ready-to-eat lamb's lettuce grown in protected environment in soil plot or in soil-less system over hydroponic solution with or without the addition of 30 µmol L⁻¹ silicon were evaluated. Minimum effects were observed on colour, firmness and microbial counts. Hydroponic cultivation largely affected plant tissue hydration, leading to weight loss and structural modifications during refrigerated storage. The shelf life of lamb's lettuce was limited by the development of visually detectable unpleasant sensory properties. Shelf life, calculated by survival analysis of consumer acceptability data, resulted about 7 days for soil-cultivated salad and 2 days for the hydroponically grown ones. The addition of silicon to the hydroponic solution resulted in an interesting strategy to increase plant tissue yield and reduce nitrate accumulation.
Although hydroponic cultivation may have critical consequences on product quality and shelf life, these disadvantages could be largely counterbalance by increased yield and a reduction of nitrate accumulation when cultivation is performed on nutritive solutions with supplemental addition of silicon.
如今，人们对水培漂浮系统越来越感兴趣，因为它可以用来种植可直接食用的沙拉叶菜。不同的种植系统会影响这些沙拉的质量和保质期，这是合理的。
评估了在土壤或无土系统中使用水培溶液（添加或不添加 30 µmol L⁻¹ 硅）在受保护环境中种植的和在土壤中种植的羊生菜的质量和保质期。颜色、硬度和微生物计数的变化最小。水培种植会极大地影响植物组织的水合作用，导致冷藏过程中重量损失和结构改变。羊生菜的保质期受可见感官特性变差的发展限制。通过对消费者可接受性数据的生存分析计算保质期，结果表明，在土壤中种植的沙拉保质期约为 7 天，而在水培中种植的沙拉保质期仅为 2 天。在水培溶液中添加硅是一种很有趣的策略，可以增加植物组织的产量并减少硝酸盐的积累。
尽管水培种植可能对产品质量和保质期产生重大影响，但通过在添加硅的营养溶液中进行种植，可以增加产量并减少硝酸盐的积累，从而在很大程度上抵消这些缺点。
