Effect of organic agronomic techniques and packaging on the quality of lamb's lettuce.

Background: This research focused on the effect of organic production systems on initial quality and postharvest performance of lamb's lettuce leaves stored in air or under modified atmosphere at refrigerated temperature. Different strategies of organic soil fertility management were compared under the same environmental conditions: (i) a simplified organic production system based on organic commercial fertilizers to recover crop uptake (SB); (ii) an organic production system based on organic matter amendment mainly supplied by animal manure (AM); and (iii) an organic production system based on organic matter amendment supplied by green waste compost (AC). Fully developed lamb's lettuce leaves were harvested and then packed into perforated bags (control in AIR) or in modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) and stored at 4 °C.

Organic vs. organic - soil arthropods as bioindicators of ecological sustainability in greenhouse system experiment under Mediterranean conditions.

Organic greenhouse (OGH) production is characterized by different systems and agricultural practices with diverse environmental impact. Soil arthropods are widely used as bioindicators of ecological sustainability in open field studies, while there is a lack of research on organic production for protected systems. This study assessed the soil arthropod abundance and diversity over a 2-year crop rotation in three systems of OGH production in the Mediterranean.