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Soilless culture provides an alternative to soil culture when serious soil problems (i.e. soil borne pests, soil salinity, chemical residues in soil, lack of fertile soil) create difficulties in traditional soil-based production. Soilless culture includes growing media, like cocopeat, vermiculite, perlite etc. or hydroponics system. The study was conducted during 2016 and 2017 to standardize growing media for soilless tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) production at Department of Soil Science and Water Management, Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India. The treatments consisted of different growing media, viz. cocopeat alone (control), cocopeat + vermicompost (70:30) and vermiculite + vermicompost (70:30). Plants were irrigated and fertigated with equal amount of Hoagland nutrient solution for meeting nutrient requirement. Treatment containing cocopeat + vermicompost (70:30) increased the nutrient uptake of N , P and K which was evident by the increased yield vis-à-vis control, i.e. cocopeat, alone. The results indicate that growing media consisting of cocopeat + vermicompost (70:30) enhances the quality and yield of tomato over the generally preferred growing media i.e. cocopeat, alone. The findings of the study will be helpful for the growers for enhancing the quality and yield of tomato under protected conditions to escape the problems faced in soil-based production system.

IntroductionIndia’s north-eastern hill region (NEH) is one of the biodiversity hotspots, inhabited by several tribal communities still maintaining their traditional food habits. Much of their food resources are drawn from wild sources.Materials and methodsFourteen species of wild edible plants of high ethnic importance were collected from remote localities of Nagaland and Meghalaya states of the NEH region of India for nutritional profiling. Nutritional profiling of leaves of six species comprising Gynura cusimbua, Garcinia cowa, Herpetospermum operculatum, Plukenetia corniculata, Trichodesma khasianum, and Elatostemma sessile is conducted first time under present study. Samples were analyzed as per the Official Method of Analysis (AOAC) and standard methods.Results and discussionThe range of variation in proximate composition was observed for moisture (72–92%), protein (1.71–6.66%), fat (0.22–1.36%), dietary fibre (5.16–14.58%), sugar (0.30–3.41%), and starch (0.07–2.14%). The highest protein content (6.66%) was recorded in Herpetospermum operculatum, followed by Trichodesma khasianum (5.89%) and Plukenetia corniculata (5.27%). Incidentally, two of these also have high iron (>7.0 mg/100 g) and high zinc (>2.0 mg/100 g) contents, except Trichodesma khasianum, which has low zinc content. High antioxidant activities in terms of gallic acid equivalent (GAE) by the cupric ion reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC) method ranged from 1.10 to 8.40 mg/100 g, and by the Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) method ranged from 0.10 to 1.9 mg/100 g, while phenol content ranged between 0.30 and 6.00 mg/100 g. These wild vegetables have high potential because of their nutritional properties and are fully capable of enhancing sustainability and improving ecosystem services. Efforts were also initiated to mainstream these resources, mainly for widening the food basket of native peoples.

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