DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF AEROPONICS SYSTEM FOR EFFICIENT FERTIGATION SCHEDULING IN LETTUCE

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Date
2019
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DIVISION OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING ICAR–INDIAN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE NEW DELHI
Abstract
India occupies 2.4% of the world’s land area and supports over 17.5% of the world’s population. It is estimated that by the year 2050 Indian population is going to reach 1.6 billion and food requirement to feed this population will be about 333 million tons, whereas at present (2017-18) the food grain production is about 278 million tons. To meet high food grain production target there are many constraints like huge population, water scarcity, climate change, industrialization, urbanization and decreasing land holding. For increasing food production there is urgent need to adopt new technologies to meet the growing food requirement like protected cultivation, soilless culture, hydroponics, aquaponics, aeroponics etc. which can overcome most of the biotic and abiotic constraints. Indigenous aeroponics system design is required along with the protocols for nozzle delivery and fertigation scheduling for popularization of aeroponics system in India. The present research entitled “Design and evaluation of aeroponics system for efficient fertigation scheduling in lettuce” was carried out during the Year 2018-19 inside climate controlled greenhouse located at Centre for Protected Cultivation Technology (CPCT), ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. Design of aeroponics system, evaluation and standardization of nozzles for efficient delivery of water and nutrient for aeroponics system and development of fertigation scheduling for lettuce grown under aeroponics system were the main objectives of the study. The indigenous aeroponics system prototype of size 0.9×0.6×0.5 m was designed and developed for growing 24 lettuce plants. Fertigation scheduling was developed for two different growing seasons taken during the experiment as Dec-Jan and Feb-March respectively. The minimum average crop water requirement for growing 72 plants was 2.6 and 2.1 l.day-1 respectively for season 1 (S1) and season 2 (S2) in first 10 days. The per plant average water requirement was 3.89 liters and 4.03 liters for S1 and S2 respectively. Three different types of nozzles N1, N2 and N3 and two sets of fertigation scheduling strategies C1 and C2 suitable for aeroponics were taken for experimental study with the CRD design of experiment. Effect of six different combinations of N&C on different plant parameters was statistically analyzed. The results revealed that nozzle N2 (hollow cone) was best suitable for aeroponics system as per the discharge variation and droplet size and the effect of nozzle and fertigation scheduling on plants parameters were significantly different at 5% significance level. It was observed that treatment T2 (N2C1) gave best result against all the plant parameters (root length, leaf area, no of leaves & yield) in comparison to other treatments throughout the growing period. The average root length was found to be 9.3 cm and 40.2 cm, leaf area 345 cm2 and 4002 cm2 and number of leaves per plant 5.8 and 24.9 after 10 days and 50 days respectively for treatment T2. The average value of lettuce yield was highest in treatment T2 and reported as 366 grams per plant. Keywords: Soilless, Aeroponics, Lettuce, Nozzle, Fertigation scheduling.
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