Productivity and Head Quality as Affected by Cultivars and Transplanting Dates of Lettuce Grown in Sandy Soil Conditions
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A field experiment was carried out during the two winter seasons of 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 at a private vegetable farm (Sand Valley Experimental Station) in Ismailia Governorate, Egypt, to study the effect of lettuce cultivars (Beg Bell and Lida F1) and transplanting dates (1st October, 1st November, and 1st December) on yield and head quality under sandy soil conditions. These treatments were distributed in a split plot design system with three replications. Lettuce cultivars were arranged in the main plots, while the transplanting dates were randomly distributed in the subplots. Transplanting Big Bell cultivar on 1st November gave the highest values of plant height, stem height, stem diameter, outer leaf number, inner leaf number, total number of leaves/plant, leaf length, width, leaf area, dry weight of leaves, total dry weight/plant, N, P, and K contents in leaves and stem, chlorophyll , b, total a+b, carotenoids, edible head weight, edible head diameter, edible head width, edible head length, average head weight, and total yield as well as head quality (vitamin C and TSS), whereas Lida F1, transplanting on 1st October, and the interaction between them gave the lowest values of these traits in both seasons.
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