Articles
OPTIMISATION OF THE NUTRIENT SOLUTION FOR EUSTOMA GRANDIFLORUM IN SOILLESS CULTURE
Nutrient solutions are aquous solutions of ions obtained by dissolving salts and can be considered as mixture systems.
The experimental design was set up as a {3,2}-simplex centroid design, one in the cation factorspace potassium (K), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) and the other in the anion factorspace nitrate (N), dihydrogenphosphate (P) and sulphate (S).
The effect of the flower quality of Eustoma grandiflorum was investigated for 7 nutrient solutions with mutual cation ratios (varying the anion composition) and for 7 nutrient solutions with mutual anion ratios (varying the cation composition). The total ion concentration of the nutrient solutions was 32 milli-equivalents/litre, the pH was 5.7.
The results suggest that the weight of the flowering stem is influenced by the tested anion and cation ratios of the nutrient solution.
