Improving the foliar biofortification of broccoli with selenium without commercial quality losses

STOFFEL MARÍA M.; MARÍA G. GUEVARA.; CÉCCOLI GABRIEL; FERNANDO F. MUÑOZ,; BOUZO CARLOS A.

CROP SCIENCE

CROP SCIENCE SOC AMER

Lugar: Baltimore; Año: 2021

0011-183X

Selenium-biofortified broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) is an important source of23 micronutrients in a healthy human diet. Therefore, studies are needed on the commercial24 production of selenium-enriched broccoli. We analyzed the effect of the foliar application25 of sodium selenate and sodium selenite in doses of 50 and 100 g ha-1 on the growth,26 photosynthetic parameters, selenium accumulation and commercial quality of broccoli in27 two cultivars (´Belstar´ and ´Legend´) used for fresh crops market grown under field28 conditions. The application of both doses of selenate and the highest dose of selenite29 induced a significant increase in the head fresh weight (FW) only in cv. Belstar. However,30 the dry matter content of the heads was not significantly affected by selenium or the31 cultivar of broccoli. In addition, the increase in the water-use efficiency, mainly due to the32 reduction of the transpiration rate, could explain the significant increase in the head FW33 without modifying the head dry matter content in cv. Belstar. On the other hand, selenium34 treatments before harvest maintained the green colour and did not affect the firmness and35 diameter of the heads at harvest. The selenium content of the heads increased markedly in a36 dose-dependent manner in both cultivars, with both selenium treatments. The results of this37 study indicate that the response to selenium treatments differs between broccoli cultivars38 and that the use of both selenium salts in foliar form would be a good strategy to obtain39 selenium-enriched broccoli, without affecting the commercial quality of the heads.