Comparative study between biocrystallization and chemical analyses of carrots (Daucus carota L.) grown organically using different levels of green manures

Carrots were grown organically using different levels of green manure, and examined by means of biocrystallization and chemical analyses. Firstly, to determine the ability of the biocrystallization method to discriminate the effects of green manure treatments (10), harvest times (4) and years (2), b ased on visual scoring of the morphological feature crystal coordination. S econdly, to examine the relationship between the biocrystallization variabl e and 11 chemical variables: Ca, Mg, fructose, glucose, sucrose, beta -caro tene, vitamin C, dry matter, total-N, nitrate-N and total amino acids. The field trial was designed in order to generate a wide range in N-availabilit y. The chemical variables showed systematic differences in physiological an d qualitative properties among the carrot samples. The biocrystallization v ariable discriminated the factors treatment and year (p < 0.01), with ident ical patterns of discrimination among the two years, and discriminated mino r differences among the harvest times (p similar to 0.05). The lowest level s of coordination were found in samples from near-N-depleted plots, and vic e versa; however the overall linear relationship to N-availability and the N-related variables was weak. In conditional covariance analyses, involving all 12 variables, the biocrystallization variable was in both years condit ionally correlated only with total amino acids. When including treatment as discrete variable, the biocrystallization variable was conditionally corre lated only with this variable. It was concluded that the biocrystallization variable detected differences among the treatments which could not be expl ained solely by differences in the chemical variables.