Abstract
Greenhouse cultivation is highly efficient in the use of water and fertilizers. However, due to intensive production, the greenhouse industry applies ample amounts of water and fertilizers. An alternative to minimize water and nutrient loss is zero-leaching systems, such as closed-loop subirrigation. The objective of the present study was to compare the water and fertilizer use efficiency in containerized tomato plants grown in a subirrigation system and a drip irrigation system. Subirrigated plants exhibited lower biomass than drip-irrigated plants. However, the amount of nutrient solution required to restore evapotranspirated water was lower in subirrigation. The yield was marginally decreased in subirrigated plants compared to drip-irrigated plants. The amount of nutrient solution required to produce 1 kg of fresh tomatoes was 22 L in subirrigation, whereas in drip irrigation, plants demanded 41 L. The total nitrogen applied through the nutrient solution was 75% lower in subirrigation than in drip irrigation, while the phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium applied was 66%, 59%, 70% and 74% lower, respectively. We concluded that the subirrigation system proved to be more water- and nutrient-efficient than the drip irrigation system due to the zero leaching of the nutrient solution, the lower number of irrigation events required and the lower nutrient demand of plants.
Highlights
Water is one of the most important resources
Substrate pH and electrical conductivity (EC) were affected by the irrigation system; in general, pH was lower while leaves (−19.3%) being more sensitive to dry weight reduction than stems (−8.1%) and fruits (−8.9%)
The lower measurements we obtained must be because we used a progressive reduction in the concentration of the nutrient solution, as we started with solutions whose EC was 2.4 dS m−1 at the beginning of the study, whereas at experiment termination it was decreased to 1.2 dS m−1
Summary
Water is one of the most important resources. It is used for household and industrial consumption, as well as for agricultural production [1]. Groundwater is by far the main source of potable water (at least 50%) and water for agricultural irrigation (43%) [6]. Excessive use of water because of inadequate irrigation practices has caused overexploitation of aquifers, reduced water quality due to pollution and decreased groundwater tables [7,8]. Greenhouse cultivation provides food products of high quality all year round and, in terms of yield and gross income, it is highly efficient in the use of water and fertilizers due to the decrease in
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