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. 2025 Feb 27;14(5):725.
doi: 10.3390/plants14050725.

Impact of Water Management on Growth and Pigment Composition of Cauliflower and Broccoli

Fatemeh Izadpanah  1   2 , Navid Abbasi  3 , Forouzande Soltani  3 , Susanne Baldermann  1   2   4
Affiliations

Impact of Water Management on Growth and Pigment Composition of Cauliflower and Broccoli

Fatemeh Izadpanah et al. Plants (Basel). .

Abstract

Global climate change minimizes fresh water resources used in agriculture worldwide. It causes drought stress, which has adverse effects on plants. To ensure food security, crops and vegetables capable of tolerating shortages of water over the growth period are needed. This study aimed to elucidate the morphological and biochemical responses of three colored cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis) cultivars (Clapton, Trevi, and Di Sicilia Violetto) and one broccoli cultivar (Brassica oleracea var. italica var. Magic) to different irrigation treatments (85-100%, 65-80%, 45-60%, and 25-40% field capacity). Assessment of growth parameters revealed no significant difference among all the treatments for root fresh weight, leaf area, and floret size. Major water shortages reduced the floret and stem fresh weight of the Clapton cultivar. Additionally, under severe drought stress, only the Di Sicilia Violetto cultivar had a decrease in plant height, but no impact on the number of leaves was observed. The measurement of pigment contents in the leaves showed no significant difference in carotenoids in all the cultivars; just the chlorophyll contents decreased with moderate stress in the Di Sicilia Violetto cultivar. This research demonstrates that cauliflower and broccoli are likely drought-tolerant vegetables and common irrigation regimes may be reviewed.

Keywords: Brassica oleracea; broccoli; carotenoids; cauliflower; chlorophylls; climate change; drought stress; irrigation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Effect of water regime (T1: watered well; T2: low stress; T3: moderate stress; and T4: severe stress) on (A): floret size; (B): stem fresh weight; (C): root fresh weight; (D): floret fresh weight; (E): plant height; (F): leaf number; and (G): leaf area parameters in Brassica oleracea var. botrytis and Brassica oleracea var. italica var. Magic. Each bar indicates means and standard error of three replicates by using one-way ANOVA at p < 0.05. Letters indicate statistically significant differences between different cultivars in alphabetical order from highest to lowest. Ca: cauliflower and Bo: broccoli.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Effect of water regime (T1: watered well; T2: low stress; T3: moderate stress; and T4: severe stress) on (A): chlorophylls; (B): carotenoids accumulation; and (C): lutein/β-carotene. (D): chl a/chl b ratios in Brassica oleracea var. botrytis and Brassica oleracea var. italica var. Magic. Each bar indicates means and standard error of three replicates by using one-way ANOVA at p < 0.05. Letters indicate statistically significant differences between different cultivars in alphabetical order from highest to lowest. Ca: cauliflower and Bo: broccoli.
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