Abstract
A common and very effective method of irrigating plants in hydroponics is using a fertigation solution, which in most cases is of high salinity and needs expensive automation systems to maintain it in a reasonable and tolerable way for each species. Cucumber is one of the most popular vegetables, growing mainly in greenhouses under various hydroponics systems and with fertigation systems installed. The objective of this preliminary study was to evaluate the effect of an Electronic Water Treatment-EWT- device (MAXGROW-MG) and test its effectiveness in growing cucumbers under hydroponic solution (fertigation) in commercial greenhouses using NGS (New Growing System) hydroponics. MAX GROW is an electronic water treatment system using multiple transmissions of radio frequencies in three different frequency bands simultaneously ( ULF/LW/MW ) to tackle the problems caused by saline water and water with a high concentration of calcium carbonate ions, commonly known as limescale.
The commercial greenhouse was split in two sections of 0.4 ha each and the fertigation solution was treated using the MAXGROW system, while the other section was not (control). Various agronomics data on the cucumber and the fertigation solution were measured.
During the growing season and at three periods, the collected data included replications of 20 cucumbers, and leaves from each section were used, whilemean comparisons were performed using JMP v18 software and Student’s t-tests for reporting the results in a letter-connecting table.
The results showed that the MAXGROW system significantly reduced the EC of the fertigation solution, from ca. 2.3 to 1.3 dS/m, increased the pH to a more optimum level (ca. from 6.0 to 6.5), and increased the weight and the relative leaf chlorophyll level (SPAD units) of cucumbewr plants. Partial data are only reported here, and this study is in progress for more data collection and further validation. The next crop to be evaluated under the same greenhouse settings will be zucchini, in the net growing season, for further validation of the reported trends.
