Evaluation of different organic nitrogen nutrition for lettuce under hydroponic system

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Soils and Water department, Faculty of Agriculture, South Valley University, 83523 Qena, Egypt

2 Soils and Water department, Fac. of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, 71524 Assiut branch, Egypt

Abstract

Effect of Different Organic Nitrogen Sources on Lettuce Growth in Hydroponics Hydroponics is one of the modern agricultural techniques applied in many countries of the world and some Arab countries such as Arab Gulf countries. Hydroponics comes as one of the proposed solution alternatives in Egypt in order to reduce the deficit in many strategic vegetable crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers, and leafy plants such as lettuce. Also,  hydroponics technology allows for precise control over plant growth, particularly nutrition, by using nutrient solutions derived from chemical compounds. However, this poses significant disadvantages, including potential contamination of produce with trace elements and higher concentrations of chemicals in plants..  Also, health as well as environmental concern are considered important problems of this system. So, this study looked at the effect of various organic nitrogen sources in the cultivation of lettuce. The study tried to measure how these fertilizers compared against a complete mineral solution. The results of this study indicate that incorporating organic sources such as Moringa leaf tea and compost tea solution significantly enhances the growth and nutritional quality of lettuce under hydroponic systems.  Moringa leaf tea recored high significant N-content and N-uptake of lettuce plants 43.73 g/kg dry weight and 749.77 mg/plant  respectively during two seasons comparing with other treatments. Also, Moringa leaf tea recorded high shoot growth parameters followed by compost tea, vermicompost tea and control treatment (mineral fertilizer ), respectively.

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