The effect of soilless culture on concentration of mineral elements in leafy vegetables

To study the effects of soilless culture on optimizing the concentration of nutrient elements in leafy vegetables, an experiment was conducted in Ramsar, Iran, during summer 2007 using a randomized complete block design with three replication. Five common leafy vegetables including sweet basil, savory, garden cress, Allium sp and parsley were grown in experiment desing containing sand without any nutritious elements and were irrigated with water containing Papadopoulos nutritious solution. When the plants were sufficiently grown, fifteen samples from each vegetables were selected randomly, and macro and micro elements were measured in them. Based on the results of analysis of variance on data collected, leafy vegetables differed significantly in concentration of N (at %5 level) and K, Fe, Zn and B (at %1 level) but they were not significantly different in concentration of P, Mn and Cu. Means comparison showed that the concentration of measured elements were in permissible and desirable levels in leafy vegetables and consumption of them will not cause signal to appear malnutrition or effects of aggregation of thse elements in consumers. According to the obtained results it can be concluded that development and promotion of soilless culture of leafy vegetables could undoubtedly improve the well nutrition of consumers.