USING A PLUG SYSTEM TO PRODUCE

HYGIENIC VEGETABLES

Wen-Shann Lee and Shaw-Rong Yang*

Department of Horticulture,
National Chung-Hsing University,
Taichung, Taiwan ROC

*Tainan District Agricultural

Improvement Station,
Tainan, Taiwan ROC

ABSTRACT

The first part of this Bulletin describes how the plug system is used to produce short-
term leafy vegetables in Taiwan. Conventional leafy vegetable production in Taiwan is based on
direct seeding. In the plug system, plug seedlings are transplanted into 18-cell flats, which are
then laid out in the field under a protective nethouse. This type of production has several ad-
vantages. The plants grow faster and can be harvested sooner, so they occupy land for a
shorter period of time. There are also fewer pest problems.
In the second part of the Bulletin, some research data are presented. Vegetables grown
in a more porous medium had better root and shoot growth, and thus higher yields. Seedling
age had a negative effect on subsequent plant growth and final yield. Vegetables produced in
flats had a respiration rate 7.5% to 60% lower, and a storage life of 2 to 6 days longer, than
conventionally grown vegetables, as observed on lettuce, Chinese kale and water convolvulus.

INTRODUCTION of leafy vegetables in terms of both their quantity and

Most people in Taiwan like to include in
their daily diet fresh leafy vegetables harvested an
early growth stage. Young, leafy vege-tables are
highly perishable, so that postharvest handling and
long-distance transport are difficult. For this reason,
it is considered that the production of leafy veg-
etables is one part of the vegetable industry that will
not have to face competition from imports in the
future. About three million metric tons of vegetables
were produced on 180,209 ha of cultivated land in
Taiwan in 1997. Of this land area, about 22,081 ha
was used for short-term leafy vegetable production.
This is about 12.2% of the total vegetable produc-
tion area (Taiwan Agricultural Yearbook 1998).
Taiwan is a subtropical island, and often
suffers from typhoons, heavy rain and thunderstorms
in summer and fall. These usually cause severe losses
their quality. Cultivating vegetables under struc-
tures is an effective way of protecting them from
such disasters (Liao et al. 1989). Currently, more
than 3,000 ha of leafy vegetables are grown under
various kinds of protective structures. The most
popular structures used in Taiwan are flat-roofed
nethouses and structures of metal piping covered in
PE film (Sheen and Chen 1992).
Most leafy vegetables, including Pak choi
and Chin-keng Pak choi (both are varieties of Chi-
nese mustard), leafy lettuce, Chinese kale, leaf mus-
tard, celery, water convolvulus etc. can be grown
successfully under structures all year round. Only
spinach and garland chrysanthemum are cool-season
crops that are difficult to grow in Taiwan’s hot
summer.
A sufficient supply of leafy vegetables has
long been the key to the price index in vegetable

Keywords: flats, leafy vegetables, nethouses, plug system, protective structures, seedlings, Taiwan

1
markets. Leafy vegetables are so vulnerable to
environmental factors that shortages in markets after
climatic disasters always causes a fluctuation in
prices. Prices may soar to 3-5 times the normal level.
In order to stabilize the market supply, two District
Agricultural Improvement Stations in Taiwan, one in
Taoyuan and one in Tainan, started trials on growing
leafy vegetables in nursery flats without inner parti-
tions, filled with local compost media, in the early
1990s (Chang Chien 1995, Yang and Cheng 1997).
Although the results were very good, the production
process was considered too laborious and costly.
After several modifications, an operational model of
leafy vegetable production using the plug system
was developed.
CONVENTIONAL PRODUCTION OF LEAFY
VEGETABLES UNDER PROTECTIVE
STRUCTURES
The conventional production of leafy veg-
etables follow the seven-stage sequence:
Land preparation ‹ Seed sowing ‹ Plant
thinning ‹ Harvesting ‹
Sorting and cleaning ‹ Packaging ‹
Shipping or storing
If leafy vegetables are direct seeded, beds
must be prepared for furrow irrigation and improved
drainage. The beds are separated by narrow paths
for working access. Usually 10 - 20% extra seed is
sown, to ensure good establishment. Thinning is
carried out when plants reach the 2- to 3-leaf stage
in order to maintain good spacing. Thinning is such
laborious work that growers spend about 400 hours
on this per hectare, which is equal to US$1,200 in
terms of labor costs. Occasionally, weeding is also
needed. Most of the leafy vegetables grown in soil
have a cropping period of 20 to 45 days before they
are ready for harvest. Harvesting, including cleaning
and packaging, are an even more labor-intensive step
in vegetable production. As reported in earlier
research, when leafy vegetables are grown under
structures, the labor cost accounts for 68% of pro-
duction total costs. Harvesting accounts for more
than 60% of the labor cost (Chang Chien and Chang
1995). The vegetables produced by conventional
methods are usually packed in large baskets made of
bamboo or plastic. Most of them are shipped to
traditional markets or to wholesale markets.
2
PRODUCTION OF LEAFY VEGETABLES USING
THE PLUG SYSTEM
The flow chart in Fig. 1 shows the process
of growing leafy vegetables in a plug system. It
begins with young seedlings in plugs, and ends with
the plants in 18-cell flats. The whole system is rather
complicated, including the medium supply, nutrient
control, pest management, and chemical residue
inspection in crop production, and also marketing
and customer services. Inspection for pesticide
residues is an important part of the production of
hygienic vegetables. It should be strictly enforced on
all crops which are sprayed with pesticides, and there
should be strict standards of quality and safety. The
production process can be roughly divided into four
steps.
Auto Seeding and Plug Nursing
Basically, leaf vegetables are propagated
by seeds, sown by a mechanized seeder. The excep-
tion is water convolvulus, which is sown directly into
18-cell flats by hand. Growers use 288-cell plug
trays for seedling propagation. As well as the
mechanized seeders, growers use a mechanized sys-
tem for filling the flats with growing medium (Fig. 2).
Two people working together can take care of one
medium filling machine and one mechanized seeder,
preparing 240 - 330 plug trays per hour. The seeded
plug trays are then stacked on carts and transported
to greenhouses for germination and early growth.
While the young plants are in the plug nursery,
experienced workers should be taking care of water-
ing and nutrition applications, because the success of
the system relies on high-quality plants.
Plug seedlings are ready for transplanting
when they are at the 2- to 3-leaf stage, with a well
developed root system. For most leafy vegetables,
this takes less than 26 days (Table 1 and Fig. 3).
Hardening off plugs, by keeping them fairly
dry for a few days before transplanting, is important
in summer. Seedlings without hardening are deli-
cate, and easily wilt in Taiwan’s hot summer. Once
the young seedlings have wilted and are lying flat on
the surface of the growing medium, they are easily
killed off by high temperatures caused by solar
radiation. However, hardening young plugs too
much is a common problem. Roots of seedlings
subjected to too much stress grow more slowly. This
prolongs the cropping time and reduces the yield.
 Fig. 1. Operation flow chart of growing short­term leafy
vegetables using plug system
Transplanting
During transplanting, workers take each
seedling out of its plug tray and plant it into a cell in
an empty flat moving along a conveyer belt (Fig. 4).
The flat is 55 cm long and 28 cm wide, and has 18
cells arranged in three rows. Each cell in the flat is
a cone shape measuring 4 x 4 cm, and 4.2 cm in
depth. The transplanted flats then move through a
machine which fills them with medium. They then
move over a vibrating bench which shakes off any
excess medium on the seedlings (Fig. 5). Finally, the
flats are watered. They are then stacked on carts and
transported to the field. There, they are spread out
under a protective netting (Fig. 6 and Fig. 7).
The transplanting of seedlings from the
plugs into the 18-cell flats is the most labor-intensive
step, because so far it must still be done by hand. A
team of five workers, four of them doing the trans-
planting and one stacking the flats, can transplant
about 400 flats in one hour. At this rate, it would take
112.5 hours to transplant 45,000 flats, the quantity
needed for one hectare.
Cultural Management
The first step in leafy vegetable production
is land preparation. Soil to which fertilizer has been
applied is plowed and leveled, before the flats are
spread out across the field. There is no need to pile
up ridges, but even so it takes 120 hours of labor to
spread out 45,000 flats over one hectare (Fig. 8).
Care should be taken that the bottom of every cell in
the flats has good contact with field soil, so as to
enhance root growth (Fig. 9).
As soon as the flats have been spread out in
the field, there is no further need for intensive labor.
Weeding is unnecessary, and there is usually no need
to spray pesticides. Crops are irrigated with perfo-
rated PE tubes (Fig. 13) or by overhead mist, both of
which can be automated. Nutrients needed by crops
are added to irrigation water through fertilizer injec-
tors. One problem during Taiwan’s hot summer is
the high temperature of flats and the root medium,
caused by strong solar radiation. Although frequent
irrigation can lower the temperature, slow growth of
roots because of waterlogged medium is often ob-
served in summer. More porous medium with coarser
particles is recommended for summer production.
Harvesting and Packaging
Most vegetables produced by a plug system
are not sold in wholesale markets, but go direct to
3
Table 1. Leafy vegetables produced in a plug system
supermarkets, or to individual families who have
placed an order for them. All vegetables sent to
supermarkets are cut off at the base of the stem, and
put into transparent plastic bags marked with a brand
name. Each bag contains about 250g of vegetables
(Fig. 11). Plants sent to individual families are put in
paper bags with their root systems intact, with about
300 g of vegetables per bag. Plants which still have
their roots intact have the advantage of a longer
storage life.
At harvesting, much labor can be saved if a
conveyer system is used. Instead of workers going
to the plants, the plants are brought to them. The
workers can harvest and pack the crops, empty the
flats, and recycle the used medium, all at the same
place and in sequence. The spent medium containing
the root residues is well composted and solar steril-
ized before reuse.
The high labor cost of transplanting has
already been improved. Nowadays, most growers
are using 32 four-connecting-cell units to fit in a 128-
cell plug tray for seedling propagation (Fig. 12). At
transplanting, four young seedlings in a four-cell unit
are planted directly into the soil and left to grow.
This method has a similar cropping time
and final yield as the system using 288-cell plugs.
However, it reduces the labor cost by more than
30%.
COMPARISON OF PLANTS GROWN
IN FLATS AND IN SOIL
Vegetables grown in flats had plant charac-
teristics and quality similar, or even superior to those
grown conventionally in soil. The leaf area of Pak
choi, Chin-keng Pak choi and leaf mustard grown in
flats was found to be 22.7%, 11.8% and 33.6%
4
higher, respectively, than that of the same varieties
grown in soil (Table 2). Plants in flats appeared
larger and more uniform, although only the differ-
ence in fresh weight of leaf mustard was statistically
significant. It is suggested that vegetables grown in
flats have faster growth at an early stage, better plant
spacing for light interception, and less weed compe-
tition than those grown in soil. There were no
significant differences in flavor, nitrate content, vita-
min C content, or total soluble solids.
EFFECT OF SEEDLING AGE
Plug seedlings of Pak choi and Chin- king
Pak choi at the age of 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, or 13 days were
transplanted into 18-cell flats, in order to compare
their growth with that of direct seeded plants. Plant
height, leaf number, and leaf area of Chin-keng pak
choi were very similar in all treatments. However,
the yield per flat decreased as seedling age increased
(Table 3). Plants transplanted at the age of 8 days
had the highest yield of 1070g, which is comparable
to that of direct seeded plants (1069.2g). Plants
transplanted at 10 or 12 days had progressively
lower yields. This effect was even more significant
effect in Pak choi (Table 4).
All factors measured — plant height, leaf
number, leaf area, fresh weight per plant and yield
per flat — decreased as the age of transplanted
seedlings increased. Direct seeded plants had the
highest fresh weight (18.9g) and the highest weight
per flat (340g). A higher growth rate of plug
seedlings transplanted early has also been observed
in tomato (Jand et al. 1996; Hsu et al. 1998) and
cauliflower (Wurr et al. 1986). The increases in the
yield of Pak choi was apparently due to an increase
in plant height, leaf number, and leaf area, while the
Table 2. Comparison of the characteristics of Pak choi, Chin­keng Pak choi, and leaf
mustard grown in 18­cell flats or in soil at harvest
increases in the yield and average fresh weight of
Chin- keng Pak choi seemed to be because of the
thicker petioles. Although the plug seedlings trans-
planted earlier had higher yields, their root system
was not yet developed enough to make it easy to pull
the seedlings out of the plug cells. Therefore, we
suggest that the seedlings should be kept in their plug
cells at least 10 to 12 days, for better root develop-
ment.
MEDIUM AMENDMENT
FOR BETTER GROWTH
Maintaining a proper moisture content in
the medium is quite difficult, especially in very hot
weather. Newly transplanted seedlings wilt easily if
they lose excessive water through transpiration.
Seedlings subjected to water stress are reported to
have a lower rate of assimilation and slower growth
(Ko 1993). Although frequent watering is a good
way to increase the moisture content and reduce
wilting, too much water in the medium reduces air
filled porosity and affects root growth. A high air
content in medium is necessary for fast-growing
plants, because roots need oxygen for respiration.
The minimum air-filled porosity is reported to be
20% or more of container capacity (De Boodty
1972; Heiskanen 1997). However, frequent water-
ing in summer to prevent plants from wilting results
in oxygen deficiency in the waterlogged growing
medium. In fact, actively growing roots need more
oxygen under high medium temperature conditions.
Our data showed that there is only 11.3% air-filled
porosity in BVB No. 4 (a peat-based medium im-
ported from the Netherlands) when the container is
filled to capacity (Table 5) while the medium tem-
perature is newly transplanted flats can be as high as
36.2°C. Adding 15% or 30% of perlite to the peat-
based medium increased air-filled porosity to 14.7%
and 19.5%, respectively. This increased the yield of
Pak choi, and shortened the cropping time for both
Pak choi and leaf lettuce (Table 6).
RESPIRATION RATE AND STORAGE
LIFE OF VEGETABLES GROWN
IN FLATS AND IN SOIL
Leaf vegetables are very perishable and
have only a short storage life. They have a high water
content, a high respiration rate, and are tender and
easily damaged in handling (Wang 1993). Since a
faster respiration rate means more rapid deteriora-
tion, it is a good index of the potential postharvest
life of vegetables (AVRDC 1992). Results indicated
that leafy lettuce, Chinese kale, and water convolvu-
lus produced from flat culture had a storage life 3, 6,
and 2 days longer, respectively, than those grown in
soil (Table 7). Further studies showed that the
respiration rates of leafy lettuce and Chinese kale
grown in soil were 7.5% and 65% higher. Although
many factors may affect the deterioration of leafy
vegetables, a higher respiration rate would at least
contribute to a shorter storage life for soil-grown
vegetables.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, growing leaf vegetables in
flats has eight advantages. Firstly, young seedlings
are grown in compact 288-cell plugs, which occupy
a much smaller area at an early stage than field grown
vegetables. There are fewer weed problems, and the
cropping time is shorter because of faster and better
growth in artificial media. Fourth, crop production
5
is divided into two stages at two separate locations, have grown fairly large in clean medium before their
and the crop can be harvested before insects and roots reach the soil. The cropping index is very high,
disease become a problem. Fifthly, there are fewer with an average of 16 to 24 crops per year, thus
problems from continuous cropping, because plants increasing the yield year per unit area. Most of the

Table 3. Effect of seedling age on growth and yield of Chin keng Pak choi grown in 18­cell
flats

Table 4. Effect of seedling age on growth and yield of Pak choi grown in 18­cell flats

Table 5. Physical properties of peat­based media amended with perlite.

6
Table 6. Changes in growth period and yield of Pak choi and leafy lettuce grown in media
amended with perlite
Table 7. Respiration rate and storage life of different leaf vegetables grown in soil or in 18­
cell flats.
production steps can be mechanized or automated.
Finally, covering the soil surface with flats gives
better control of the striped flea beetle (Phyllotreta
striolata), a serious pest in leafy vegetable produc-
tion in Taiwan.
Since leafy vegetables grown in flats need
little or no chemical pesticide for pest control, this
can be seen as a model of hygienic vegetable produc-
tion in tropical Taiwan. Further studies should
include the use of flats made of some biodegradable
or photodegradable material that is more friendly to
the environment. Secondly, the possibility should be
examined of using colored flats which reflect light,
thus helping plant growth and reducing insect prob-
lems. Thirdly, labor saving by future mechanization
and automation of the system is worthy of further
study, since the main drawback of growing veg-
etables in flats is the high labor cost of transplanting
plugs into the flats, and moving the flats out into the
field.
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7
Fig. 2. Vegetable production in flats Fig. 3. Plugs are ready for transplanting
starts from 288­cell plugs at 12 to 26 days after sowing

Fig. 4. Seedlings from 288­plugs are Fig. 5. Filling of medium into

transplanted into 18­cell flats by transplanted flats moving along a
hand conveyer

Fig. 6. Watering of the flats after they Fig. 7. Transplanted flats stacked on a
have been filled with peat­based cart ready for transporting to the
medium field

8
Fig. 8. Spreading out the flats in the field Fig. 9. Well developed roots of leafy
under a protective net house lettuce growing into soil

Fig. 10. Pak choi grown in 18­cell flats Fig. 11. Workers are harvesting leafy
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Fig. 12. Four­cell units fit into 128­cell Fig. 13. The 4­cell units with young
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9
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