EFFECT OF THE ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM ON LETTUCE PRODUCTION GROWN UNDER DIFFERENT SOILLESS SYSTEMS

Khater, El-Sayed G.

doi:10.21608/mjae.2016.97623

EFFECT OF THE ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM ON LETTUCE PRODUCTION GROWN UNDER DIFFERENT SOILLESS SYSTEMS

Document Type : Original Article

Author

El-Sayed G. Khater

Lecturer. of Agric. Eng., Fac. of Agric., Benha Univ., Egypt.

10.21608/mjae.2016.97623

Abstract

Soilless culture is a technique for crop production without soil. Crops are grown in the nutrient solution or on a proper medium, therefore, soilless culture involves no work such tools or machines. But it needs additional costs for growing systems and chemical fertilizers. It offers earlier growth and higher yield. The main aim of this research is to study the effect of aeration on preventing the root problems by comparing the hydroponic system with aeration to the aeroponic system. The obtained results indicated that the nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium consumption rate ranged from 22.10 to 32.63, 26.30 to 34.65, 85.80 to 120.30, 14.88 to 18.37 and 11.34 to 13.64 mg plant^-1 day^-1, respectively, in hydroponic system and ranged from 25.65 to 37.35, 25.51 to 38.33, 115.70 to 127.50, 17.15 to 20.83 and10.94 to 14.90 mg plant^-1 day^-1, respectively, after 50 days from transplanting in aeroponic system. The root length increased from 17.17 to 19.13 cm with increasing flow rate from 1.0 to 2.0 L h^-1 in hydroponic system and increased from 17.45 to 19.56 cm with increasing flow rate from 0.5 to 1.5 L h^-1 in aeroponic system. The fresh and dry mass of shoot and root were increased in aeroponic system better than those of hydroponic system. The total nutrients uptake values were higher in aeroponic system than those in hydroponic system. The average nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium uptakes were 3.29, 1.25, 2.46, 0.43 and 0.44 %and 2.13, 0.82, 1.81, 0.32 and 0.40 % for aeroponic and hydroponic system, respectively. The average nitrate content was 155.52 and 113.73 mg plant^-1for aeroponic and hydroponic system, respectively.

Keywords

References

Bremmer, J.M. and Mulvaney C.S., 1982. Nitrogen-total. In: Page, A.L., Miller, R.H., Keeney, D.R. (Eds.), Methods of Soil Analysis, Part 2. Chemical and Microbiological Properties, second ed., Agronomy series No. 9 ASA, SSSA, Madison, WI, pp. 595–624.

Chapman, H.D. and Partt, F.P., 1961. Methods of Analysis of Soils, Plant and Water. California University, pp. 150–200.

Cho, Y.D., Kang S.G., Kim Y.D., Shin G.H. and Kim K.T., 1996. Effect of culture systems on growth and yield of cherry tomatoes in hydroponics. RDA J. Agric. Sci. 38, 563-567.

Genuncio, G.C., Gomes M., Ferrari A.C., Majerowicz N. and Zonta E., 2012. Hydroponic lettuce production in different concentrations and flow rates of nutrient solution. Hort. Brasileira 30, 526-530.

Gomez, K.A., 1984. Statistical Procedures for Agricultural Research, 2nd ed. John Wiely & Sons, New York, USA 680 pp.

Gysi, C., von Allmen F., 1997. Balance of water and nutrients in tomatoes grown on soilless systems. Agrarforschung 4:1.

Hale, C., Lamotte F. and IannettaP., 2015. The development of hyroponic and aeroponic culture systems for the high-throughout production of basil. www.hutton.ac.uk/webfm_send/413

He, J. and Lee S.K., 1998. Growth and photosynthetic responses of three aeroponically grown lettuce cutivars (Latuca sativa L) to different root zone temperatures and growth irradiances under tropical aerial conditions, Journal of Horticultural Science 23, 173–180.

Hoagland, D.R. and Arnon D. I., 1950. The water culture method for growing plants without soil. Univ. of Calif., Agric. Exp. Sta. Cir. 347 pp.

Johanson, E.K., 2009. Aquaponics and Hydroponics on a Budget. Tech Directions 69 (2), 21-23.

Joseph, S.V., Bettiga C., Ramirez C. and Soto-Adames F.N., 2015. Evidence of protaphorura fimata (Collembola: Poduromorpha: Onychiuridae) feeding on germinating lettuce in the Salinas Valley of California. J. Econ. Entomol. 24, 1–9.

Khater, E.G., 2006. Aquaponics: the integration of fish and vegetable culture in recirculating systems. M.Sc. Thesis, in Agric. Eng., Fac. Agric., Moshtohor, Benha Univ., Egypt.

Khater, E.G., Ali, S.A., 2015. Effect of flow rate and length of gully on lettuce plants in aquaponic and hydroponic systems. J. Aquacult. Res. Dev. 6: 3. http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2155-9546.1000318.

Khater, E.G., Bahnasawy A.H., Shams A.S., Hassaan M.S. and Hassan Y.A., 2105. Utilization of effluent fish farms in tomato cultivation. Ecol. Eng. 83, 199 – 207.

Martin-Laurent, F., Lee S.K., Tham F.Y., He J., Diem H.G. and Durand P., 1997. A new approach to enhance growth and nodulation of Acacia mangium through aeroponic culture. Biol. Fertil. Soils 25, 7–12.

Murphy, J. and Riley J.P., 1962. A modified single solution method for determination of phosphate in natural waters. Anal. Chem. Acta 27, 31–36.

Nichols, M.A., 2005. Aeroponics and potatoes. Proceedings of the first international symposium on root and tuber crops 'Food Down Under'. Leiden. Netherlands. Int. Soc. Hort. Sci. (ISHS). pp. 201-206.

Peiris P.U. and Weerakkody W.A., 2015. Effect of Organic Based Liquid Fertilizers on Growth Performance of Leaf Lettuce (Lactuca Sativa L.). International Conference on Agricultural, Ecological and Medical Sciences (AEMS-2015) April 7-8, 2015 Phuket (Thailand).

QI, L.J., 2012. Development of hydro-atomized spraying system for a controlled environment aeroponic farm. Fac. Electrical Engineering, University Teknikal Malaysia Melaka.

Rackocy, J.E. and Hargreaves J.A., 1993. Integration of vegetable hydroponics with fish culture: a review. In: Wang J.K., Ed. Techniques for Modern Aquaculture, American Society of Agricultural Engineering, St. Joseph, MI, 112-136.

Rana, S., Bag, S.K., Golder, D., Mukherjee (Roy), S., Pradhan, C. and Jana, B.B., 2011. Reclamation of municipal domestic wastewater by aquaponics of tomato plants. Ecol. Eng. 37, 981–988.

Snedecor, G.W. and Cochran W.G. 1980. Statistical Methods, 7^th Ed., Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa, USA.

Winsor, G. W. and Schwarz M., 1990. Soilless culture for horticulture crop production. FAO Plant Production and Protection Paper, Publication No. 101, Rome, Italy.