Organic composts effects on lettuce and strawberry productivity and in vit.c and pigments contents as quality parameters

Abstract

Food wastes headed to landfills is still greater than desired and the long use of agrochemicals lead to agricultural and health problems. Composting could be a way of giving a new and valued purpose to those wastes paving the way to a more sustainable agriculture and global attitude towards resources (re)use. In this study, or- ganic composts N and G in different concentrations were used to fertilize lettuce and strawberry in a field experi- ment. Statistical differences were found between treatments in tissue turgidity, photosynthetic pigments and an- thocyanins content. Also, vitamin C have increased in lettuce with compost N (10 ton/ha) and in strawberry with compost G (5 ton/ha). Overall, the compost N showed better results at the lowest concentration tested, suggesting that for each crop optimizing the type and concentration of compost is important not only to improve productivity and quality but also to fine tune the amount of compost added to the soil.