Development of a Control System for Lettuce Cultivation in Floating Raft Hydroponics

Abstract

Developing a control system for hydroponics is gaining high attention because of the possibility to increase resource efficiency in producing high quality vegetables. Applying such a control system for nutrient solution in hydroponics requires less labour and operational cost. Therefore, it is important to develop a control system for nutrient solution in hydroponics. This research was aimed to develop a control system for lettuce cultivation in floating raft hydroponics. The control system has been developed to control temperature, EC, pH, DO, and ORP of nutrient solution in the controlled floating raft hydroponics by using Arduino Mega 2560 microcontroller as a control unit and micro SD card as storage media. The control system was found to be able to maintain the temperature of nutrient solution in the range of 20 to 25°C, EC in the range of 1500 to 1700 μS/cm, pH in the range of 5.5 to 6.2, DO in the range of 4 to 8 ppm, and ORP in the range of 300 to 500 mV. The control system performed well in maintaining these parameters as showed by a better lettuce growth in the controlled floating raft hydroponics, as compared to that of without the control system.