Volume of cells on trays influences hydroponic lettuce production

Abstract

Lettuce seedlings used on hydroponic cultivation (NFT) are usually produced in trays with small volume, requiring two transplants: from tray to nursery and then to the definitive place. The aim of this study was to verify lettuce performance under NFT system, using seedlings produced in trays with several cell volumes (50, 40, 35, 31, 30, 29, 27, 20 and 10 cm³ cell-1). The tray volumes are considered treatments. The experimental design was completely randomized blocks, with four replicates. Seedlings were transplanted directly to the definitive profile, except those ones produced in 10 cm³ cell-1. Two harvests were performed, at 22 and 29 days after transplant (DAT). We evaluated number of senescent leaves, total number of leaves, shoot fresh mass, root fresh mass, shoot dry mass, stem length and productivity. The best performance was obtained using seedlings produced in trays with higher volume per cell. The nursery phase was not necessary and it was possible to obtain reduction from two to one transplant, corresponding to trays of 20 to 50 cm³ cell-1. Seedlings produced in trays with 40 and 50 cm³ cell-1 made the early harvest possible, at 22 DAT of cultivation under hydroponic NFT system.

Macronutrient cycling in hydroponic lettuce cultivation

“…The yield of the lettuce cv. Milena reached, on average, 2.75 kg m −2 , similar to that found by Lima et al (2018) (2.51 kg m −2 ).…”

“…Shoot dry mass (SDM) accumulation was, on average, 13.04 g plant −1 at 28 DAT, which is similar to that obtained by Lima et al (2018) of 12.42 g plant −1 .…”

“…The number of establishments that produce lettuce in Brazil is 108,603 units (approximately 80,000 hectares), which have a total of 908,186 tons per year (IBGE, 2017). It is estimated that the hydroponic cultivation of leafy vegetables in Brazil is approximately 2,000 hectares, with a growth trend for the coming decades (Lima et al, 2018). The adoption of new cultivation technologies has been increasing in recent years, such as the cultivation of lettuce in a hydroponic system of the NFT (Nutrient Film Technique) under protected cultivation (Sala, 2019).…”

Agronomic and sensory evaluation of lettuce in hydroponic system

“…Regarding the production of shoot fresh mass obtained for cultivar Vanda (399.44 g plant -1 ), a larger value of shoot fresh mass was found by Lima et al (2018), who reported production of 439.50 g plant -1 for the same cultivar at harvest at 29 days after transplanting (DAT), presenting an increase of approximately 10% in relation to the present study at 23 DAT. This is due both to the greater number of days after transplantation and the greater volume of substrate used by Lima (2018) for the production of seedlings, where the seedlings developed in cells of 50 cm³ and obtained greater development of the root system, against the available 10 cm³ for the seedlings that were used in this study.…”

Sensory analysis of curly kale produced under conventional and hydroponic systems

“…Kale is usually cultivated in soil; nevertheless, studies have demonstrated that hydroponics is an alternative, with the advantage of anticipating the harvest, which can occur in up to 30 days after seedling transplant (Noboa et al, 2019), whereas for the conventional system, the harvest begins two to three months after culture installation. Additionally, hydroponics is the technique of leafy vegetable cultivation that most grows in Brazil (Lima et al, 2018).…”