GYPSOPHILA PANICULATA RESPONSE TO LEACHATE RECYCLING IN A GREENHOUSE IN ISRAEL

Gypsophila response to leachate recycling in greenhouses has not been studied yet in Israel.
The objective of this work was to determine effects of threshold EC for leachate disposal and irrigation rate on flower yield, solution ionic composition and water and nitrogen use efficiency in closed fertigation systems.
In treatments that resulted in EC of 2.3 and 2.9 dS m^-1 at harvest the marketable yield in the first flowering wave was 70 and 64.5 flowering-stems m^-2 ground, respectively.
The yield decline was offset by saving in water and N (213 vs.143 L m^-2 and 17.5 vs. 12 g N m^-2 ground, respectively). Decreasing the irrigation frequency from 10 to 5 pulses per day (without altering amount of water per pulse) had insignificant effect on yield, transpiration and N concentration in plant, but caused salt accumulation at midway distance between tricklers.
Flower yield in pumice (EC at harvest 3.5 dS m^-1) was lower than in perlite (2.9 dS m^-1): 44.1 vs. 64.5 flowering stems m^-2 ground, respectively, even though pumice was more effective than perlite in reducing microflora population in solution.

World Congress on Soilless Culture: Agriculture in the Coming Millennium

B. Bar-Yosef, T. Markovich, I. Levkovich, Y. Mor

Flower yield, pumice, perlite, microflora, electrical-conductivity

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2001.554.20