EFFECT OF NUTRIENT SOLUTION STRENGTH ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF GRAFTED AND NON-GRAFTED CUCUMBER GROWN HYDROPONICALLY IN GREENHOUSE

Abstract

Growing cucumber through the grafted transplants has become extremely important to control the risk of consecutive cucumber cultivation in the greenhouses. The experiment was implemented in the experimental farm of Horticulture Dept., Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University during the 2018 and 2019 growing seasons. Indeed there are no true estimates of the nutrient requirements of grafted cucumber plants under Egyptian conditions. Therefore, this study was conducted on the cucumber, cv. Barracuda F1hybrid, using either grafted and non-grafted transplants. The grafted transplants were prepared by grafting onto rootstock 6001 F. Both grafted and non-grafted transplants were grown hydroponically in a greenhouse in pots filled with 7 kg of well-washed sand media. The plants were irrigated with nutrient solution at a strength of 70%, 80%, 90% 100%, and 110% throughout the plants' life. The pots were irrigated daily till sand soil water content reaching the field capacity. The results till that growing grafted cucumber transplants improved all vegetative plant growth parameters in terms of fresh shoot weight, fresh root weight, dry shoot weight, dry root weight, dry leaves weight, stem length, stem diameter, the number of leaves, and leaf chlorophyll SPAD). The and yield as well as leaf nutrient elements content were also enhanced by grafted compared to non-grafted transplants. For the nutrient solution strength, the data evidenced that all assessed parameters recorded ascending values matching with nutrient solution strength increase. The highest values were got with 100% nutrient solution strength. At 110% nutrient solution strength most vegetative and yield parameters did not significantly different from 100% strength in grafted plants. But in non-grafted plants, most parameters tended to decline thus indicate the probability of salt stress. The results establish that there is no need to increase the concentration of the nutrient solution to face the increasing of grafted cucumber plant yield, where grafting on good rootstocks increases water and fertilizer use efficiency.