<b>Nutritious solutions, outflows and quality of the hydroponic lettuce</b> - DOI: 10.4025/actasciagron.v29i2.299

Abstract

Nutritious solutions, outflows and quality of the hydroponic lettuce. This experiment was carried out in a vegetation environment at the irrigated agriculture unit of the State University of Maringá, State of Paraná in order to study the effect of three nutritious solutions with distinct electrical conductivities, applied to two different outflows, on the lettuce cultivation. The following production variables were analyzed: number of useful leaves, number of non-useful leaves, and length of the stem. The treatments consisted of a factorial combination of three nutritious solutions with different concentrations (S1=1.2 mS cm^-1, S2=2.5 mS cm^-1, and S3=0.8 mS cm^-1) and two application outflows (O1=1.2 L min^-1 and O2=0.8 L min^-1) in the cultivation channels. The delineation was performed at random with 3 replications. Thus, the following treatments were used: S1O1 - nutritious solution 1 applied to outflow 1, S1O2 - nutritious solution 1 applied to outflow 2, S2O1 - nutritious solution 2 applied to outflow 1, S2O2 - nutritious solution 2 applied to outflow 2, S3O1 - nutritious solution 3 applied to outflow 1, S3O2 - nutritious 3 applied to outflow 2. The increase in the concentration of the nutrients with different outflows of the solutions did not provide a significant increase in the number of useful leaves. However, when analyzing the solution treatment separately, there were significant differences in the number of non-useful leaves between solutions I and II, in relation to solution III. Solution 1 (CE = 1.8 mS cm^-1) provided the longest length of the stem, which was significantly different from the other solutions.