Yield and quality of curly kale grown using organic fertilizers

Abstract

Kale is a vegetable that has high nutrition content, and balanced fertilization is essential to ensure high yield and quality of agricultural products. Curly kale, less known than regular leaf kale, is a new possibility for consumption. However, little is known about the influence of the type of fertilization on nutritional characteristics. This study aims to evaluate the influence of using organic fertilizers on the productivity, microbiological, and physico-chemical characteristics of Darkibor hybrid curly kale. The treatments consisted of three sources of organic fertilizers, one of organomineral fertilizer, and the control (without fertilization). The highest productivity was observed for kale that was treated with fertilizer in the organomineral composition in all harvests. For microbiological analyses, there was no contamination in all treatments, following legislation. There was no significant difference between treatments for the physicochemical composition, highlighting the high levels of phenolic compounds and proteins in curly kale. There was no difference between treatments regarding the mineral content of the leaves. Organic and organomineral fertilizers made it possible to produce curly kale with adequate physicochemical composition, free from microbiological contamination and heavy metals.