Effect of seawater on growth of four vegetable crops - Lettuce, leaf perilla, red pepper, cucumber -

The effects of seawater on growth of lettuce(Lactuca sativa L.), leaf perilla(Perilla frutescens var. japonica Hara), red pepper(Capsicum annuum L.) and cucumber(Cucumis sativus L.) seedlings were investigated in the glass greenhouse. These effects were studied on seedlings, and diluted seawater (1%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 50%, 100% v/v) was sprayed enough on leaves. The tested four vegetable crops have well grown up to 10% diluted seawater, but the tested vegetable crops were damaged from increasing salt levels. Of these, lettuce was provided salt-tolerant vegetable crop and red pepper was considered salt-sensitive vegetable crop. The salt tolerance of vegetable crops is different between crops and complicated because of additional detrimental effects caused by accumulated ions or specific ion toxicities in their leaves. These results show that agricultural use of seawater may be benefit crop cultivation in organic farming system as well as in conventional farming system.