Organic Hydroponics: an Outlawed Technique for Lettuce Production

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Organic hydroponics seems to be an oxymoron (Atkins & Nichols, 2004). A lot of debates were done on these farming systems. They cannot be unified. Hydroponics is the method of growing plants in the water through the use of chemical nutrient solution. According to the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010, organic agriculture is a soil-based system and only focuses on soil enrichment through natural farm inputs. Meanwhile, the lack of space for lettuce production in the country causes shortage, thus, the increasing demand is not sustained. In an attempt to solve this issue, a self-formulated organically derived nutrient solution was made to know the possibility to produce lettuce in a hydroponics system without using any kind of chemical input.

METHODS

Components of artificial nutrient solution intended for lettuce were used as a basis. Leaves of home-grown plants were collected based on their nutrient content such as guava as source of Potassium, boiled, extracted, and served as the nutrient solution. Thirty plants were monitored in an improvised hydroponics system administered with the solution. In a span of 5 weeks, series of observation were conducted which included measuring of height, leaf length, andobserving its appearance (color and shape).

RESULTS

It was found out that lettuce plants respond positively in the organically derived nutrient solution. Height and leaf length, as well as shape and color, were developed well throughout the observation period. However, compared to the hydroponics system that consumes commercialized nutrient solution, the growth rate was slower. A height of 8.8 cm and a leaf length of 4.4 cm in a span of 5 weeks attained in this study is lower than the average growth rate of a lettuce produced in a hydroponics system that uses commercialized nutrient solution. But in terms of color and shape, there were no remarkable or huge difference.

DISCUSSIONS

The results prove that it is possible to produce lettuce hydroponically using an organically derived nutrient solution. However, the results also imply that there is a need to consider other factors to improve the growth rate of the plants in this system. Therefore, the notion that organic agriculture principlescan only be applied through the use of soil as media may be changed through this study. However, the produced yield still cannot be labelled as organic. For this reason, it is advised to use an organically derived nutrient solution for growing lettuce hydroponically, instead of using chemicals/artificial inputs.