PRELIMINARY STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE USE OF VERMICOMPOST AS A CULTURE SUBSTRATE ON THE QUALITY OF LETTUCE SEEDLINGS (Lactuca sativa L.)

The experiment was carried out at the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, Faculty of Horticulture under laboratory conditions in 2020. During the COVID 19 pandemic, it took place in the university greenhouse, from the end of October until the end of November 2020. The biological material was represented by Red Oak lettuce cultivar, vermicompost (also known as vermicast), peat, zeolite and perlite. The paper aimed to present the benefices of using vermicompost in reducing nutrient solution and a higher yield. We tested 13 variants with 3 repetition each and used vermicompost in different percent as substrate such as 0%, 25%, 50% and 100% of pot volume. The vermicompost was produced by California Red Wigglers from converting two types of precomposted manure, horse and cattle over the period of 26 weeks. The vermicompost has a neutral PH 6.8-7.2 and does not burn the plant. The lettuce from variants where vermicompost was added, had a lower nutrient solution intake, this being an economic effect to reduce water consumption.