The Effect of Planting Media and Axes on the Growth and Yield of Red Spinach (Amaranthus tricolor L.) in Hydroponic System

Abstract

<p>Hydroponics is a solution to a problem of lack of land that has an impact on cultivation of red spinach. Planting media and axes often used are rockwool and flannel. These materials have weaknesses which are expensive and difficult to find in some places. Yet, it can be overcomed by using local materials that have potentials to replace rockwool and flannel role. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the effectiveness of the use of media types and axes. The research was conducted factorially using Split Plot Design with the archetype of group plot design (RAK) consisting of 2 factors with 3 repeats. The first factor as the main tile is type of media consisting of three levels; M1 (rockwool), M2 (cocopeat), and M3 (charcoal husk), while the second factor as sub plots are types of axes consisting of three levels; S1 (flannel), S2 (coconut coir fiber), and S3 (banana smelter fiber). The results showed that the interaction on types of media and axes had an unreally different influence on all observational variables except root volume variable; The types of media had an unreally different response to all observational variables; The types of axes had a different response which was not noticeable in plant height, root length, and header / root ratio, but It had a noticeable different response to variables in the number of leaves, root volume, fresh weight of the plant, and dry weight of the plant, in which S1 (flannel) showed the best results.</p>