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Hydroponics has been an increasingly important field of vegetable production. However, a big issue with hydroponics is that certain crops can quickly accumulate high levels of nitrate-N (NO3 ± -N) from the hydroponic system. The objective of this research was to decrease NO3 accumulation and increase the nutritional value and yield of vegetable crops using lettuce and oilseed rape as a model under hydroponic production. In this study, two technologies were applied to leafy vegetable production: 1) using supplementary lighting (blue-violet diode) by manipulating illumination and 2) removing fertilization before harvest for a short term (3 or 5 days), thus providing a practical experiment for improving yield and edible qualities of hydroponic leaf vegetable production. Illumination was applied 4 hours a day (0500–0700 hr and 1700–1900 hr) during good weather, or 12 hours a day during bad weather with insufficient natural light (<2000 lux) during the autumn and winter seasons. Results showed that the lettuce cultivar Ou-Luo and the oilseed rape cultivar Ao-Guan Pakchoi had increased yield (50.0% and 88.3%, respectively), decreased NO3 content (26.3% and 30.8%, respectively), and increased total soluble solids (24.1% and 30.6%, respectively). The 5-day fertilizer-free treatment before harvest resulted in 19.2%, 6.4%, and 16.5% yield increases; and 26.0%, 24.3%, and 47.8% NO3 decreases in oilseed rape cultivar Ao-Guan Pakchoi and lettuce cultivars Da-Su-Sheng and Ou-Luo, respectively.
Previous investigations showed that accumulations of Na+ and Cl− in leaves resulted in reductions in chlorophyll content, thereby affecting photosynthesis. Understanding how chlorophyll content evolves over time will help plant breeders to select cowpea genotypes with better tolerance to salinity by allowing them to choose those with more stable chlorophyll content under salt stress. The objective of this study was to assess how the chlorophyll content of cowpea genotypes changed over the course of 24 d of salt stress at the seedling stage. A total of 24 cowpea genotypes with different salt responses were used in this study. The experiment used a split-plot design with salt treatment as the main plot and cowpea genotypes as the subplot. In the main plot, there were two salt treatments: 0 mm (ionized water) and 200 mm NaCl. In the subplot, the cowpea genotypes were arranged as a completely randomized design with three replicates per genotype. The results revealed that: a1) the time × genotype interaction was significant under conditions with and without salt; 2) chlorophyll content slowly decreased in the salt-tolerant genotypes; 3) chlorophyll content slightly increased on day 6 and day 9 of salt stress in both moderate and sensitive genotypes, but it decreased at a faster rate than in the salt-tolerant genotypes; and 4) salt-sensitive genotypes were completely dead on day 24 of salt stress, whereas the salt-tolerant genotypes were able to maintain a significant amount of chlorophyll content. These results can be used to advance breeding programs for salt tolerance in cowpea.