Thai culinary herbs such as coriander and sweet basil become popular. For production of them in vertical farming, we need to investigate the suitable growing conditions, especially the relationship between nutrition condition in the root zone and vegetation growth. Moreover, we investigated the aroma quality under these conditions. Here, we report the comparing of nutrient conditions at both of perlite and hydroponic cultivation. Thai coriander (Coriandrum sativum ‘Saisamorn’) and Thai sweet basil seeds (Ocimum basilicum ‘Micro’) were sown under white LEDs for 24 hr. After 14 days, seedlings were transplanted into deep flow hydroponic culture in environment-controlled growth chamber at air temperature of 25℃, 60% relative humidity, and luminance at PPFD 450 µmol/m/s. The photoperiod was set for 16 hr. light and 8 hr. dark. Different concentrations ranged from EC 1.6, 2.0, and 3.5 at pH 5-6 of nutrient solution were supplied to hydroponic system and perlite system. The perlite system was used by mixing vermiculite with perlite at ratio of 1:2. The mixture of vermiculite and perlite was poured into planter for herb cultivation. Dripping tubes were provide for irrigation. After 40-50 days of transplant, vegetative growth; fresh weight, shoot growth, root length, and stem growth were measured. The major aromatic compounds for coriander such as Decanal, Dodecanal, (Z)-3-hexenol, (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate, and trans-2-dodecenal, and major aromatic compounds for sweet basil such as linalool, eugenol, methyl eugenol, estragole, eucalyptol were evaluated by using GC-MS. The growth and volatile compounds of coriander and sweet basil are varied toward nutrient solution condition and cultivation systems. As the result of this study, it can be assumed that we have found one of the optimum conditions to cultivate Thai herbs in a controlled environment.
