Hydroponic versus soil‐based cultivation of sweet basil: impact on plants' susceptibility to downy mildew and heat stress, storability and total antioxidant capacity

Abstract BACKGROUND In recent years, hydroponically cultivated basil has gained extensive popularity over soil‐based cultivation. Evidence for potential differences between both cultivation methods, in terms of resistance to biotic and abiotic stress factors, storage properties and shelf‐life, is still lacking and the potential effect of cultivation method on the antioxidant capacity has not yet been fully explored. This study aimed to determine which of the two basil cultivation methods produces plants that are more resilient to downy mildew and external heat treatment and that exhibit better storage and shelf‐life performance. RESULTS Hydroponically grown basil was significantly more affected by browning than the soil‐grown basil at the end of the storage and end of the shelf‐life period. Under both cultivation methods, the extent of browning increased significantly between the end of the storage and end of the shelf‐life period, by a factor of 1.4. Moreover, hydroponically grown plants were significantly more sensitive to heat treatment than soil‐grown basil. However, the soil‐grown basil exhibited significantly greater susceptibility to downy mildew than the hydroponically grown basil. At harvest, and at the end of the storage period, the antioxidant capacity of hydroponically cultivated basil was significantly greater than that of soil‐grown basil. CONCLUSIONS Hydroponically cultivated basil exhibited greater resistance to downy mildew, but less resilience to heat and browning during storage and a shelf‐life period, resulting in poorer storage and shelf‐life performance as compared to soil‐cultivated basil. The greater total antioxidant capacity of the hydroponically cultivated basil seems to be the major cause for the observed phenomena. © 2023 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.