Development of customized automated fertigation system for soilless media in protected cultivation
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Date
2021
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
A study was undertaken for the development of a low-cost customized automated fertigation system for
the closed soilless system under protected conditions and tested for cucumber crop grown in different
soilless media under naturally ventilated polyhouse at Dr. S. D. Khepar Laboratories of the Department
of Soil and Water Engineering, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. This system consisted of
mainly four units i.e. controller unit, sensor unit, fertigation unit, and pipeline unit. The controller unit
comprises the programmable logic controller (PLC) which is used to automate the whole fertigation
process i.e. to prepare and supply the fresh nutrient solution to the crop and reuse the drained nutrient
solution after making the balance solution through the filtration from the polyhouse. The developed
system was calibrated for dozing pumps, EC, pH sensors precision analysis, and time taken by the
dozing pump with their respective treatments. The experiment was set in a factorial split-plot design
included 9 treatments each under the developed automated and conventional fertigation systems with
three fertigation levels viz. T1 = 100% fresh solution, T2 = 90% fresh solution with 10% leachate and
T3 = 80% fresh solution with 20% leachate. Cucumber hybrid Multistar were planted under three
different substrates of cocopeat i.e. S1 = 50% cocopeat with 50% cocochips, S2 = 70% cocopeat with
30% cocochips and S3 = 100% cocopeat in three replicates during three growing seasons. The
performance of the system was measured by crop growth parameters (vine length, leaf area index, stem
diameter, leaf chlorophyll content), yield parameters (fruit weight, fruit length, fruit diameter, yield per
plant), and quality parameters (vitamin C, total phenol content, antioxidant capacity, total chlorophyll
content, firmness). The economic analysis was carried out for a developed automated system with 50%
subsidy on polyhouse and without subsidy and compared with conventional fertigation system.
Customized automated fertigation system recorded significantly higher 17.1%, 10.8%, and 12.1% fruit
yield per plant as compared to the conventional fertigation system in seasons 1, 2, and 3 respectively.
Out of three different growing media, all the plant growth, yield, and quality parameters were recorded
significantly higher under substrate S2 followed by S3 and S1. Among the fertigation treatments, T1
recorded significantly higher all the plant growth parameters as compared to T2 and T3 while there was
no significant difference found in the fruit yield and quality parameters. For a customized automated
fertigated system, BCR was found 2.16 & 2.19 (with subsidy) and 1.73 & 1.77 (without subsidy) for
years 1 and 2. While, for conventional fertigation system, BCR was 1.89 & 2.0 (with subsidy) and 1.45
&1.59 (without subsidy) for years 1 and 2 respectively. Overall, the developed customized automated
fertigation system crop grown under substrate S2 and with fertigation treatment T3 is recommended for
achieving a statistically similar yield.
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Citation
Pandey, Kusum (2021). Development of customized automated fertigation system for soilless media in protected cultivation (Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation). Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India.