2025/11/11 by Jaewook Shin, Meiyan Cui, Hyein Lee +6 · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Botanical Research and Applications #Nematode management and characterization studies #Plant and animal studies
paper · doi:10.1080/14620316.2025.2583141
openalex publication_date 2025/11/11 · openalex created_date 2025/11/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/23
Adopting wild edible species into a diet as leafy vegetables has gained attention because of their potential in antioxidant capacity and nutritional values. However, tough leaf texture often poses notable challenges for their consumption as fresh salad greens. We investigated leaf teeth development in spiny sow thistle (Sonchus asper (L.) Hill) under various photosynthetic photon flux densities (PPFDs) to regulate leaf morphology for consumption acceptability. Plants were cultivated using a deep-flow technique under three PPFD conditions (90, 180, and 270 μmol m−2 s−1) in a plant factory with artificial lighting. Low light conditions effectively reduced the development of leaf teeth, thus remarkably decreasing the number of teeth and perimeter of both the inner and outer leaves, as well as the standardised tooth count and perimeter ratio in the inner leaves. To address the inhibited growth under low PPFD, nutrient absorption characteristics were analysed. The optimised solution remarkably improved growth, further reducing the number of teeth and standardised tooth count compared with the commercial solution. These findings demonstrate that optimising the nutrient solution composition under low light intensity in controlled environment can be a promising technique to regulate leaf morphology and enhance productivity of wild edible species for salad green production.