Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A Study
on a Simple
Passive
Hydroponic
System
for Melon
Production
Hideo Ikeda*,
Keiko Tagami
and Naoya Fukuda
Institute of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305
Summary
Melon plants were grown from spring to summer (crop 1) and summer to autumn (crop
2) by a passive hydroponic system which was laid below the ground surface, so that
plants can be grown and harvested without management of the nutrient solution. The
effects of the initial concentration of nutrient solution on the growth of plants, yield and
quality of fruits, and absorption of water and minerals were investigated while using this
system.
The concentrations of the nutrient solution had varied effects on plant growth and
fruit yield of melon, depending on the growing season. The marketable fruits were harvested from plants grown in the higher concentration plots in crop 1 and in all plots in
crop 2. The temperature of the root zone was relatively low and fluctuated little even in
the summer (crop 1), because the growing system, that is, solution reservoir was laid below the ground surface. Thus, it was concluded that this passive hydroponic system may
be an useful and practical production technique for melons. However, more trails need to
be conducted to adjust the nutrient solution for practical use.
Introduction
planting,
the nutrient
solution
required
for one
crop must be prepared
in an underground
reservoir. Then after planting, such care as control of
pH, electric conductivity
(EC) and mineral composition of the solution, aeration, renewal of the
solution,
etc. is not required
until
harvest.
However, for this hydroponic
system, the proper
practices are, however, fairly difficult and troublesome for growers to maintain.
Recently, a new concept for a hydroponic
system called "Passive
hydroponics"
was adapted by
Ono (1988) in Japan. This growing system was
originally started in the U.S.A. as a Skaife Truck
Farm (Jones, 1983). In this system, once plants
absorb nutrient
solution,
the water surface decreases, and naked roots with fine root hairs develop in the air above the water surface. Thus, the
Received for publication 26 December 1994.
* Present address; College of Agriculture
, University
Osaka Prefecture, Sakai, Osaka 593.
passive hydroponics;
the effects of the initial concentration
of the nutrient solution on the growth
of plants, yield and quality of fruit, and absorption
of water and minerals by the plants were investigated.
Materials
From
our
hydroponic
mated
tion
season.
of
pared
839
preliminary
system
to require
for
one
This
and
and
experiment,
illustrated
about
crop
100
liter
of nutrient
in
an
our
in Fig.
of melons
volume
stored
Methods
passive
1, was
of nutrient
even
during
solution
underground
estisolu-
the
was
120
hot
preliter
840
H. Ikeda,
K. Tagami
plastic bucket as a reservoir. Three initial concentrations of nutrient solution were: 1/3, 1 (full) and
3 times strength of the Japanese standard nutrient
solution (Enshi-shohou).
The composition
of the
full strength solution in me liter-1 was NO3-N, 16;
NH4-N, 1.3; P, 4; K, 8; Ca, 8; and Mg, 4. Iron was
added
as an iron salt of EDTA
(Ethylenediaminetetraacetic
acid) to produce a concentration
of 3 ppm. The microelements
were added according to Hoagland and Arnon (1950), and the pH of
the solution adjusted to 5.5. The bucket was covered with a reflective
film to prevent
algae
formation and to keep the moisture content high.
The experiment had five replications.
Seedlings of melon, cv. 'Amusu', grown on rockwool cubes were transplanted
into perforated
plas-
and
N. Fukuda
tic cylinders
(14 cm in diam. and 60 cm long) filled with fresh rice hulls. The perforations
allowed
roots to grow into the external nutrient solution.
Melon plants were transplanted
and grown from
March 5 and harvested
on June 26 (crop 1) and
from August 20 to November 19 (crop 2). Customary to a Japanese cultural practice, each plant bore
only one fruit.
During growth period, pH and EC values of the
solutions were checked at regular intervals. At the
end of the experiment,
fresh and dry weights of
leaves, stems and roots, and sizes and sugar contents of fruits were determined.
At the start and
end of the experiments,
nutrient
solutions
were
sampled and analyzed by the following methods:
NO3-N; by ultraviolet
spectrophotometry
(Norman
and Stucki,
1981),
P; by ammonium-vanadatemolybdate-method
on a spectrophotometer,
K, Ca
and Mg; by atomic absorption.
Results
Fig.
1. The
passive
hydroponic
system
used in the
green.
The total dry weight of plants in crops 1 and 2
was the highest in the full strength solution (Table
1). In crop 1, the leaf dry weight of plants grown
experiment.
Table
1.
Effects
plants
Table
2.
sugar
of initial
Effects
content
of initial
concentration
of nutrient
concentration
of melon fruits.
841
Discussion
In general, hydroponics
evolved as a high technology plant production
system until now. The
main advantages
of hydroponics
over all other
types of soil culture are: 1) more efficient nutrient
of the
solution
nutrient
absorbed
of the nutrient
solution
on growth
of melon
by a plant.
solution
on size, fresh
weight
and
842
H. Ikeda,
K. Tagami
Table
and N. Fukuda
Fig.
4.
Changes
rient
in
solution
the initial
the
electric
during
conductivity
the experiments
of
as
the
affected
nutby
concentrations.
3. Mineral composition of the nutrient solution at the start and end of the experiment. (meliter-1)
regulation, 2) availability
in regions of the world
having nonarable
land, 3) efficient use of water
and fertilizers,
4) ease and low cost of sterilization
of the medium, and 5) higher density planting,
leading to increased yields per acre (Resh, 1993).
843
30 cm and deeper from soil surface in the greenhouse is stable and maintained at 16 to 17 C all
periment
demonstrated
that whereas
the fresh
weight of the fruit was low, the amount of water
absorbed
by a plant was high because of the
vigorous
vegetative
growth in the full strength
solution. Only a higher concentration
of the nutrient solution seems to be good for melon production in this season. In Japan, growers
usually
stress melon plants for water several days before
harvest. During that period, the concentration
of
the soil solution becomes very high resulting in an
increase in sugar contents of the fruits (Kano et
al., 1978). In this experiment, increased EC of the
solution was also favorable for increasing
sugar
contents of melon fruits.
In crop 2, however, marketable fruits were harvested from all treatments
which we attribute
to
the depressed vegetative growth as a result of the
cool air temperature.
In the 1/3 strength nutrient solution, about 70
% of the solution was absorbed by plants during
the experiment.
NO3-N concentration
in the solution at the end of the experiment
decreased
by 6
to 7 %. If plants absorb minerals and water at the
same rate, the concentration
of minerals in the remaining
solution
should
not change.
Extreme
lowering of NO3-N concentration
in the solution
means that the NO3-N was absorbed faster than
water by plants. The concentration
of all mineral
elements in the full and 3 times strength solution
increased at the end of the experiment with a corresponding increase in EC readings.
Although the air temperature
became very high
in the daytime in summer the root zone temperature was stable and almost similar to the soil
temperature
in this system, because the solution
reservoirs
in which plant roots grew were laid below the ground surface. The soil temperature
at
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