Vegetables in the tropics are grown continuously throughout the year due to the favorable climate. Unfortunately, leafy vegetables are often damaged because of slugs and snails. These mollusks and other herbivores cause different levels of defoliation to plants which can significantly impact their growth, production, and quality of the harvested product. A study was carried out in order to artificially simulate the effect of a loss in foliar area caused by these pests. The impact of severe artificial defoliation in spinach plants (Spinacia oleracea) was evaluated in Tunja, Colombia. Under greenhouse conditions and after transplanting, the plants had 75% of their leaf area removed. This procedure was repeated weekly on newly emerging leaves while a control group of plants was left intact. 71 days after transplanting, the plants were harvested, and the leaf area and dry weight of the plants were measured with which some allometric variables were calculated to express growth. Variables such as the number of leaves, plant height, total dry weight, relative growth ratio, leaf weight ratio (LWR), and root to shoot ratio (R:S) were unaffected by defoliation while leaf area, leaf area ratio (LAR), and specific leaf area (SLA) were reduced with the partial removal of the leaf area. The partial defoliation resulted in an increased partial biomass of the leaves. These results suggest that spinach plants have a moderate tolerance to partial defoliation.

由于气候宜人，热带地区的蔬菜全年都在持续种植。不幸的是，多叶蔬菜经常由于和蜗牛而受损。这些软体动物和其他草食动物会给植物造成不同程度的落叶，这可能会严重影响植物的生长，产量和收获产品的质量。为了人为地模拟由这些害虫引起的叶面积的损失的影响，进行了研究。严重的人工落叶对菠菜植物的影响（菠菜）在哥伦比亚的Tunja进行了评估。在温室条件下和移植后，将植物的叶面积去除了75％。每周在新出现的叶子上重复此过程，同时使对照组的植物保持完整。移植后第71天，收获植物，并测量植物的叶面积和干重，并据此计算出一些异速生长变量以表达生长。叶片脱落，叶片面积比（LAR）不会影响叶片数量，植物高度，总干重，相对生长比，叶片重量比（LWR）和根与茎比（R：S）等变量，而不会受到脱叶的影响。 ，并且随着部分叶面积的减少，比叶面积（SLA）减少。部分脱叶导致叶片的部分生物量增加。