A +16.6% teen-leaf lettuce yield uplift at the UK Agri-Tech Centre
+16.6%
+34%
All 5
Trial Summary
The UK Agri-Tech Centre evaluated Overture® B in teen-leaf lettuce in its research glasshouse at the Stockbridge Technology Centre, in a deep water culture system set up to replicate commercial production. A commercial teen-leaf variety was sown into peat blocks, propagated for 14 days, then transplanted into deep water culture ponds and harvested 31 days after sowing.
Overture® B was applied twice: sprayed onto the seeds at sowing, then onto the young plants at transplanting. Treated and untreated plants were grown alongside one another across thirty ponds under identical conditions, with five ponds per treatment and 25 plants per pond. At harvest, the trial centre weighed every plant individually.
Conclusions
Overture® B increased mean fresh head weight by +16.6% compared with untreated plants at this early teen-leaf stage. Treated plants were heavier than untreated plants in all five replicate blocks of the trial.
Overture® B also boosted root growth: the fresh weight of roots growing out of the peat block was +34% higher than in untreated plants.
The whole crop shifted upwards. 29% of treated heads weighed 4 g or more, against 8% of untreated heads, and only 2% of treated heads stayed below 2 g, against 11% of untreated heads. Leaf colour and foliar nutrient levels were comparable to untreated plants.
For teen-leaf growers selling by weight, a heavier crop from the same ponds and the same cycle length means more saleable product per square metre.
