Effects of biofertilizer applications on plant development and yield in aquaculture lettuce cultivation

This research was carried out to investigate the effects of biofertilizer use on plant growth and yield in aquaculture lettuce cultivation. The research was carried out in the field of Horticulture Research and Application of Akdeniz University Faculty of Agriculture, and aquaculture was carried out in boats in stagnant water culture. There is Lactuca sativa as herbal material in the study. 'Caipira' lettuce cultivar belonging to the Crispa species was used, and the effects of liquid vermicompost and microbial fertilizers with different bacterial content, called BM-Megaflu, on aquaculture were investigated. Applications: Control (K), Control+Vermicompost (K+VK), Control+Megaflu (K+MF) and Control+using vermicompost (VK, 3 ml/L) and megaflu (MF, 1ml/L) in addition to the control It was planned as Vermicompost+Megaflu (K+VK+MF) and the research was carried out with 3 replications. In the study; leaf length and width, the amount of dry matter in the leaf, the root length of the plant, the measurements and analyses of SÇKM in the leaves, the average yield per plant, the yield per unit area, the EC and pH values of the plant leaves, the number of leaves, root weight, head diameter, head height, root collar diameter, chlorophyll measurement (SPAD), colour parameters; chroma, hue angle and L value measurements were made. As a result of the research, The effects of applications on leaf width and length were found to be insignificant. The lowest amount of dry matter in the leaf was determined in the application of K+VK+MF (15.36%), while the other applications showed similar characteristics, and the highest root length value was obtained from the application of K+MF (37.16 cm). The highest amount of TSS was obtained from the application of K+VK (2.73%) and K (2.66%), respectively, the lowest average yield value per plant and the yield value obtained per unit area, respectively, from the application of K+VK (87.83 g/plant, 3513.33 g/m2). The effects of other applications were found to be similar. The highest EC measurement value on leaves was obtained from K+VK and K+MF applications, the lowest pH measurement value was obtained from K (5.93) application, other applications showed similar properties in terms of pH. The effect of the applications on the number of leaves per plant was found to be significant, and the highest number of leaves was obtained from the applications of K+VK (18.13 pieces/plant) and K+VK+MF (17.86 pieces/plant). The highest chlorophyll measurement value was found in the K+VK+MF (17.93 SPAD) application, and the lowest value was found in the Control (13.76 SPAD). Chroma*, Hue, and L* values in leaf color measurements did not show a statistically significant difference between treatments. Bacteria application was found to be successful when done alone and in combination with vermicompost.