Effects of electric conductivity and plant density on lettuce baby leaf production in NFT hydroponic system

摘要

The baby leaf market is at its beginning in Brazil, but in some European countries and in the United States the market is already established. Similar to the market, production systems are starting to be established in Brazil. Thus, they need to be studied in order to gain knowledge of how to produce baby leaf in each production system. Some farmers who grow leafy vegetables in nutrient film technique (NFT) hydroponic system are adapting their systems to grow baby leaf, but without the technical support provided by research. Therefore, to find answers on how to produce baby leaf in NFT hydroponic systems, the intention of the present study was to verify the effect of nutrient solution electrical conductivity (0.4,0.8,1.2 and 1.6 mS cm1) and the distance between plants (2.5, 5.0 and 10.0 cm) on development and yield of lettuce cultivar 'Vera'. The experiments were carried out in a nutrient film hydroponic system inside a greenhouse in the period of February to March 2012. The experimental design used was a split plot with randomized blocks replicated four times. There was no significant interaction among treatments, however, there were statistical effects for the treatments separately. The higher yield of 3.1 kg m2 were obtained at 1.4 mS cm1. Thedistance between plants of 2.5 cm promoted higher yield of 4.9 kg mЛ