Inicium® is a low molecular weight peptide-based product with radicular activity that is especially beneficial at the onset of radicular activity and during transplantation. The most visible effects of Incium® are the development of a strong radicular system, which helps lettuce reach a sellable size faster.
The following is a trial on lettuce carried out the year (2004) in Chile, where these effects are confirmed.
Trial Description:
The trial was carried out in the town of Calera de Tango, located 30 km. south of Santiago de Chile. The lettuce was cultivated in 1.6 m width plots, with four rows of lettuce each. The distance between each plot was 0.5 meters and an irrigation system was used to fertilize the plants.
Two Incium ® applications were applied through the irrigation system. The first application was done one day after transplantation, and the second application eight days after the first.
- 1st application: T1 (05/15/04)
- 2nd application: T2: (05/23/04)
Important note: In Chile, which is in the southern hemisphere, these dates would correspond to Autumn in the northern hemisphere.
The treatments conducted were the following:
- Control: no application - Incium® : 12 l/ha + 12 l/ha
The crop was harvested on September 25, 2004 and 48 plants per treatment were evaluated using the statistical methods: Anova and Tukey (α=0.05).
The following parameters were evaluated:
-plant height
-plant diameter
- head formation
- head diameter
Results:
Plant height:
The graph above shows that the application of Incium® at 12 l/ha enhanced the maximum height of the plants. In the three dates of evaluation, treated plants were higher than the control plants. These differences are statistically significant; with an increase in height of Incium®-treated plants of 19.5%, 17.4%, and 16.5% for the first, second and third evaluations.
Plant diameter
Plants treated with Incium® were not only higher (see graph 1) than the control plants, they also reached a statistically larger diameter.
Head Formation
When the plants began to entwine their inner leaves to form their heads, the heads of the Incium® treated lettuce reached significantly bigger sizes than the control ones.
It was verified that there was a faster head formation in the Incium®-treated lettuce. At the time of evaluation, 87.5% of the treated plants had formed their heads, while only 52.1 % of the untreated plants had done the same. There is a statistically significant difference of 35.4% between the treatment and the control.
It was also noticed than the heads of the Incium®-treated lettuce reached significantly larger sizes than the control ones.
Head diameter
In the initial evaluation (T2+89D), a difference in diameter of 1.8 cm in favour of the treated lettuce was observed. In the second evaluation (T2+123D), one day before harvesting, the Incium® -treated plants kept the advantage; showing a 0.5% difference in diameter.
Trial Conclusions:
Incium® has proved to be an efficient solution to help overcome the stress caused by lettuce transplantation, with Incium®-treated lettuce showing higher precocity. They were not only taller and thicker plants; their head formation also had a statistically significant growth improvement: growing much faster than the growth of the control (untreated) plants.
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