Water retention of substrates potentiates the quality of lettuce seedlings

A difficulty in the production of lettuce seedlings in containers is to assure the production of shoot biomass with limited portion of roots, restricted to a small volume of substrate. Therefore, we investigate if substrates associated to lettuce cultivars interfere in the seedling quality. The treatments, outlined in a two-factorial scheme, were two cultivars of lettuce and four substrates, arranged in a randomized complete block design, with three replications. The results showed that seedlings produced in the substrate with higher water retention capacity had higher performance in relation to shoot morphology and root system morphology. In conclusion, the data show that the seedlings quality of lettuce cultivars associate with the types of substrates studied and that seedlings produced in substrate with higher water retention have better quality.