STRAWBERRY PRODUCTION LINKED TO AQUACULTURE WASTEWATER TREATMENT

Plug plants (cv.
Chandler) and freshly dug plants (cvs Chandler, Oso Grande, and Sweet Charlie) were set in nutrient-film-technique (NFT) troughs and in vertically-stacked square pots and fertigated with aquaculture wastewater.
The effluent, pH of 7.2, 6 mg/L total suspended solids, macronutrients (mg/L): NO₃-N (17), P (1.2), K (6), Ca (81), Mg (19), S (15), and supplemented with K and micronutrients, was applied at 100 mL/min continuously.
Plug plants of ‘Chandler’ yielded over 600 g/plant from January to March.
Freshly dug ‘Sweet Charlie’ began flowering in late October with the first crop harvested on 7 Dec.
These systems reduced P from an inlet concentration of 1.2 mg/L to an outlet concentration as low as 0.1 mg/L. Leaf mineral contents were in the adequate range.
The use of hydroponic systems for growing strawberries in fish effluent has a potential for improving quality of aquaculture wastewater to meet stringent phosphorus discharge regulations.

III International Strawberry Symposium

F. Takeda, P.R. Adler, D.M. Glenn

hydroponics, phosphorus, phytoremediation, pulse irrigation, soilless culture, Fragaria x ananassa

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1997.439.113