Lettuce Growth and Yield in Hoagland Solution with an Organic Concoction

ABSTRACT

Hydroponics is a technology that can contribute to fulfilling demand for vegetables year-round even where normal agricultural practices cannot be undertaken. However, it is still in its nascent stage and crop production techniques for lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) have not been standardized. Moreover, effect of organic concoction in conjunction with nutrient solution on qualitative and quantitative parameters of plant needs to be established. An experiment was carried out to examine the effect of Hoagland Nutrient Solution (HNS) and jeevamrut (made from 10 kg cow dung plus 10 L cow urine added to 100 L of water plus 2 kg jaggery, prepared filtered, boiled, sugarcane juice which is concentrated and cooled to produce jaggery blocks plus 2 kg of flour and a small amount of soil fermented for 7 days) on growth, yield and quality of lettuce using Nutrient Film Technique compared to grow bags. Treatment with Hoagland Nutrient Solution+5% application of jeevamrut in Nutrient Film Technique increased numbers of leaves, root length, leaf area and yield by 40, 34, 24 and 24%, respectively, over the control (fertigation with Hoagland Nutrient Solution in grow bags). The water used for hydroponics was 22 times less compared to grow bags. Growing lettuce in hydroponics fertilized with Hoagland Nutrient Solution+5% application of jeevamrut using the Nutrient Film Technique produced good quality lettuce with higher yields.

KEYWORDS:

• Lactuca sativa
• days to maturity
• HNS
• jeevamrut
• nutrient content
• NFT
• smart agriculture

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Ministry of Electronics and Information technology, Government of India for the study. The authors also thank the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Mohali, for establishing the automated hydroponic system for undertaking the study.