Comparison of rockwool and coir for greenhouse cucumber production: chemical element, plant growth, and fruit quality

Lizhong He; Xiaotao Ding; Haijun Jin; Hongmei Zhang; Jiawei Cui; Jianfeng Chu; Rongguang Li; Qiang Zhou; Jizhu Yu

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10930

Comparison of rockwool and coir for greenhouse cucumber production: chemical element, plant growth, and fruit quality

Heliyon. 2022 Oct 7;8(10):e10930. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10930. eCollection 2022 Oct.

Authors

Lizhong He¹, Xiaotao Ding¹, Haijun Jin¹, Hongmei Zhang¹, Jiawei Cui¹, Jianfeng Chu², Rongguang Li^{1

3}, Qiang Zhou^{1

4}, Jizhu Yu¹

Affiliations

¹ Shanghai Key Lab of Protected Horticultural Technology, Horticultural Research Institute, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai 201403, China.
² Shaoxing Agricultural Products Testing Center, Shaoxing, Zhejiang, 312000, China.
³ College of Ecology, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai, 201418, China.
⁴ Shanghai Dushi Green Engineering Co., Ltd., Shanghai 201403, China.

Abstract

Replacing rockwool with more sustainable materials, such as coir, is an effective measure to improve the sustainability of soilless cultivation in the greenhouse. To comprehensively assess the feasibility of coir before using it widely, coir was compared to rockwool as a cucumber cultivation substrate to evaluate its performance on mineral elements in the substrates, drainage, and in the plants. Plant growth, amino acids, and flavor substances of cucumber fruits were also compared between the two substrates. Compared to rockwool, coir significantly increased the LAI and yield of cucumber crops as well as contents of Ca, Mg, S, Cl and Zn in leaves and fruits. Contents of P, K, Ca, Mg, Cl, Zn, and B in the substrate were higher for coir while those of Fe, Cu, and Mn in the drainage lower. Moreover, coir also significantly increased contents of amino acids (His, Leu, Ile, Phe, Lys, Asp, Glu and Pro) and flavor substance (TC, PS, TP, CLL, CuB, and LA) in cucumber fruits. Our results demonstrated the potential of coir as a replacement of rockwool to improve sustainability of soilless cultivation in the greenhouse.

Keywords: Amino acids; Coir; Cucumber; Flavor substance; Mineral elements; Rock wool.