Potential of Selenium Effect in Broccoli Microgreen under Various Artificial Light Quality

Microgreens, as a crop with fast growth and high nutritional value, are becoming increasingly popular within plant factories. Enriching plants with selenium (Se) an increase the intake of this element in the human diet, which is often limited, so the current experiment aimed to grow high quality broccoli microgreens using Se treatment. This experiment was conducted as a factorial form based on completely randomized design, which the first factor contained different ratios of red light at 660 nm and blue light at 440 nm with a light intensity of 200 μmol/(m2 s). The second factor involved Se spray (0 and 10 µg/mL). The results revealed that the stem length as a negative index was greatest in Red1/Blue1 without Se (4.24 cm), while the shortest was observed in Red2/Blue1 without Se treatment (2.84 cm). The plants treated with Red3/Blue1 and Se resulted in the greatest FW (81.5 mg). However, plants under this treatment showed no significant difference in FW with other treatments, except for Red1/Blue1 without Se (59.8 mg). The highest flavonoids content was found in broccolis treated with Red1/Blue1 and Se (0.0039 mg/g FW). Plants sprayed with the Se nutrition and Red1/Blue1 light treatment had the highest sulforaphane (271.72 μg/g DW) so can be recommended for high quality broccoli microgreen production. The interaction of the light spectrum with other nutrients has yet to be fully explored.